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

Since 1964, The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has collected and preserved modern and contemporary art in order to exhibit it and provide transformative experiences. These objects, MMoCA holds in trust for everyone to learn from and be inspired by all for free.&nbsp;In 2025, MMoCA added over 80 artworks to the permanent collection, including works on paper, large-scale paintings, and sculptures from both local and international artists.&nbsp;Recent Acquisitions&nbsp;displays some of these art objects, showcasing the breadth of contemporary art practice and connecting Madison to the global dialogue through visual art.&nbsp;

Recent Acquisitions

During her 2025 Artist Residency at the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago-based artist, design director and educator Kimberly Viviano interrogates how everyday food choices affect our bodies in uncomfortable ways. Drawing on personal experience and research, her installation investigates the tension between foods labeled “healthy” and how differently individual bodies can respond to them.<a href="https://zpzl839y.r.us-west-2.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fsqclick.com%2Foutreach%2Ft%2F6iFkeySaxzhQ%2Fhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fimss.org%25252Fkimberly-viviano-food-for-thought%25252F%25253Futm_source%25253Dsqmktg_email%3Fs=qfBtUgTbeJ0G29A6LQinnFs8rYXjPA-Bkj1017zPtzI/1/0101019cc44e31ce-376117fd-ade0-416d-9862-f278044627da-000000/HIb81s-xlz354jnYXtq2QUApStg=469" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MORE INFORMATION</a>

Food for Thought: Kimberly Viviano

This Winter, the&nbsp;Elmhurst Art Museum&nbsp;presents&nbsp;Living with Modernism: Kelli Connell.&nbsp;Presenting two series by the Chicago-based artist, Connell’s nationally traveling exhibition&nbsp;Pictures for Charis&nbsp;responds to the iconic photographs of Highland Park-born artist&nbsp;Edward Weston&nbsp;through a queer, feminist lens. Her second major body of work—Double Life—explores the evolution of intimate relationships shaped by the changing nature of identity over time, and features new commissions responding to the architecture of the&nbsp;Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House. The exhibition marks the largest presentation of Connell’s work in Chicago, placing queerness, power structures, and shifting ecologies in the twenty-first century in conversation with two giants of modernism. The exhibition is curated by&nbsp;Allison Peters Quinn, Executive Director and Chief Curator, and will be on view at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst, from&nbsp;January 24 to April 27, 2026. Peters Quinn says, “The Elmhurst Art Museum is honored to present the arresting photographs of nationally acclaimed photographer Kelli Connell in the Chicagoland area, where she has rooted her art practice and mentored dozens of artists for over a decade. Following its extensive US tour, we have expanded the&nbsp;Pictures for Charis&nbsp;exhibition to include an additional series,&nbsp;Double Life&nbsp;by Connell. Connell’s commitment to exploring the everyday moments in relationships with ourselves and loved ones encourages us to cherish both the beautiful and the difficult times in our lives. Chicago is a crucial center for contemporary photography, and we are proud to highlight this through&nbsp;Living with Modernism.” An exhibition in two parts, Connell explores the psyche of human relationships and our connection to nature and architecture. The main galleries will feature 45 photographs from her series&nbsp;Pictures for Charis, a tender and emotional sequence of work placing Connell in dialogue with one of the most innovative American photographers of the 20th Century, Edward Weston (1886-1958). For this body of work, Connell revisited the sites of Weston’s black-and-white landscapes and portraits of his partner of 11 years, writer Charis Wilson, in&nbsp;California and the West&nbsp;(1934-45), to photograph her own former longtime partner, artist Betsy Odom. Connell’s work is presented alongside 48 original prints by Weston on loan from the Center for Creative Photography (Tuscon) and text excerpts from Charis. Shining new light on Weston’s subject, Charis, the installation bridges eighty years of ecological and social shifts with a feminist perspective.The McCormick House gallery features the latest chapter in Connell’s ongoing series&nbsp;Double Life, which the artist began in 2002. For this series, Connell explores long-term relationships with others and the self. The digital images document the fictional relationship of two women, both played by collaborator Kiba Jacobson. Connell describes&nbsp;Double Life&nbsp;as “an honest representation of the fluidity of the self in regard to decisions about intimate relationships, sexuality, gender, family, belief systems, and lifestyle options.” For&nbsp;Living with Modernism, the Elmhurst Art Museum commissioned Connell to respond to the architecture of McCormick House designed by Mies van der Rohe. Connell chose to photograph the site - and incorporate poetry from its former owner Isabella Gardner (niece of the Boston arts patron by the same name) - to generate new works adding to the perpetual&nbsp;Double Life&nbsp;narrative. Connell says,&nbsp;“I am beyond thrilled to show&nbsp;Pictures for Charis&nbsp;and&nbsp;Double Life&nbsp;together at the Elmhurst Art Museum. Both projects portray my commitment to uncovering forgotten histories. Making new work in the McCormick House, a space where the work will also be shown, was a unique opportunity for me to think about architecture and its impact on people and the relationships we have with each other in these spaces.” Pictures for Charis&nbsp;is co-organized by the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, at the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; the Cleveland Museum of Art; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Pictures for Charis&nbsp;is curated for each museum by Rebecca Senf, Ph.D., Chief Curator at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, at the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; Barbara Tannenbaum, Ph.D, Curator of Photography and Chair of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Cleveland Museum of Art; and Gregory J. Harris, the Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta and Allison Peters Quinn, Executive Director &amp; Chief Curator of the Elmhurst Art Museum.This project is made possible by Teiger Foundation. Photographs by Edward Weston are courtesy of the Edward Weston Archive at the Center for Creative Photography. Additional support for&nbsp;Living with Modernism&nbsp;and related programs are provided by the Illinois Arts Council and individual donors. ABOUT THE ARTISTKelli Connell&nbsp;(b. 1974) is a photographer based in Chicago. Through her images, she addresses issues of sexuality, identity, and self-perception. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, among others. Publications include&nbsp;Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis&nbsp;(Aperture and Center for Creative Photography, March 2024),&nbsp;PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice(Aperture),&nbsp;Photo Art: The New World of Photography&nbsp;(Aperture), and the monograph&nbsp;Kelli Connell: Double Life&nbsp;(DECODE Books). Connell has received fellowships and residencies from The Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, PLAYA, Peaked Hill Trust, LATITUDE, Light Work, and The Center for Creative Photography. 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 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/" target="_blank">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>.Images Kelli Connell,&nbsp;Surf, Point Lobos, 2015, courtesy the artist.

Living with Modernism: Kelli Connell

The Lena Meijer Tropical Conservatory is transformed into a vibrant sanctuary filled with thousands of tropical butterflies, creating the largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibition in the United States and one of Meijer Gardens’ most anticipated annual experiences.

Fred & Dorothy Fichter Butterflies Are Blooming

In April, we'll be exhibiting new work from&nbsp;represented artist David Keel.&nbsp;Described as dreamlike, haunting, colorful, nostalgic, and whimsical, David's paintings evoke a variety of reactions and interpretations.&nbsp;

David Keel: The View From Here

<h2>Kate Goodvin: Trust Fall</h2> <h4>Exhibition Dates:&nbsp;April 6–May 1, 2026</h4> <h4>Reception:&nbsp;Friday, May 1, 5–8 pm</h4> Tandem Press is excited to host&nbsp;Trust Fall, a Master of Fine Arts Qualifier Exhibition by Kate Goodvin, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA Candidate and 2025-2026 Tandem Press Studio Project Assistant. By merging printmaking, painting, and collage, Kate Goodvin creates monumental self-portraits that chronicle the evolving story of becoming. Her work is shaped through the perspective of a Gen Z woman growing up amid the digital transformation of contemporary life and coming of age during a period marked by increasing uncertainty. Goodvin’s practice examines how distinct eras of our lives are shaped and defined by pop culture movements, media saturation, music, and the broader political, environmental, and sociological climates that surround us. Deeply personal and rooted in self-discovery, she looks inward to uncover reflections of a broader shared condition, capturing the intimate process of navigating identity in a rapidly shifting world. This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund. More information and installation images coming soon.

Kate Goodvin: Trust Fall

Bert Leveille’s Waterfall Portals examines human connection to the earth, each other, and consciousness. In this installation piece, animated, otherworldly “mindful beings” travel the waterfalls of the universe like portals, imploring viewers to question where they go and what knowledge they can access through their multi-dimensional travels. <a href="https://newgallery.online/bert-leveille-waterfall-portals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://newgallery.online/bert-leveille-waterfall-portals</a> <a href="mailto:info@artcitychi.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">info@artcitychi.com</a>&nbsp;| (312) 690-9634Opening reception: Friday, April 10 from 5-9 PM, Closing reception: Friday, May 1st from 5-9PMExhibition can also be viewed from the street or by appointment (email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:reevah@newgallery.online" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reevah@newgallery.online</a>)Image Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Bert Leveille: Waterfall Portals

Perspective Gallery is proud to host “Teaching,” Nelson W. Armour’s ode to classroom teachers. Resulting from a two-year residency with “<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=8c7e2f36fa&amp;e=49b9939ea4" target="_blank">Artists in the Public Schools, formerly CPSLIves</a>,” the project examines teaching and what it means to be a teacher. This photographic essay is an homage to the challenges, triumphs, hard work and effort of teaching, from the small details to the big picture.&nbsp;“Teaching” opens on Thursday, April&nbsp;2, 2026&nbsp;with an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 4, 2026 from 5- 7 PM. The exhibit runs through Sunday, May 3, 2026. A Virtual Artist’s Talk will be held on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 7 PM. To register for the talk, go to Perspective Gallery’s website,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.org/april-2026" target="_blank">https://perspectivegallery.org/april-2026</a>.&nbsp;Armour was privileged to follow three teachers over two school years in two Chicago Public Schools, the Lázaro Cárdenas Elementary School in the Little Village area of Chicago (2021-22 school year) and the Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School in the Austin neighborhood (2023-24 school year). This project, sponsored by&nbsp;Artists in the Public Schools, documents how teachers engage and relate to their students as individuals and classes.Above image - Teaching #20

Teaching

A beautifully crafted object can enhance any home or workspace. From a mug for your morning coffee, a plate for your toast, a bowl for your favorite soup, a rocking chair to relax in, a colorful pottery jar for storage, a contemporary hand-blown glass vase, and a woven textile are not just art pieces, but also practical items that can be used in our daily lives. Art can be all around us in the form of these functional pieces that make our spaces fun.The exhibition will showcase artwork from over 30 artists, many from Illinois.Fine Line will host an in-person reception on Thursday, March 26, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM to officially open the show, with several of the participating artists in attendance. As with all Fine Line gallery receptions, this event is free and open to everyone. Light refreshments will be served during the evening.

Home Improvements: The Functional Art Show

ART HAS POWER! To transform, heal &amp; ignite us! It's just the prescription we need sometimes to bring us back to our human self. Come for a visit! Our spring show opening coincides with art EXPO CHICAGO. We are located just 1 mile from Navy Pier and nestled between Michigan Ave. &amp; the Northwestern medical complex in the newly landmarked 161 East Erie Row.

Art Prescriptions

Joy Machine is pleased to present Life Forms, a solo exhibition by Janny Baek, on view from March 20 to May 9, 2026.How do we conceive of change? With fear, excitement, or uncertainty? As Janny Baek builds sculptural ceramics of speculative beings and imagined landscapes, she grapples with these questions. The work follows its own dream logic, one that accepts incongruity and dissonance as necessary to play and experimentation. Marbling hunks of colored clay, coiling bases, and molding a singular material into something new is part of an exploratory practice that embraces transformation and its often strange outcomes. Life Forms emerges from this dual meaning, invoking both the act of creation and the fantastical works it produces. Neither wholly abstract nor representational, Baek’s sculptures draw on natural structures and processes and invite us to question how we interpret the world around us. Recognizable forms like open blossoms, birds, and creatures are met with the unexpected. These lively components make even the more abstract works appear animate, like ambiguous organisms that might decide to scuttle away. They evoke something primordial and yet are exhilaratingly new. Baek paints in the way she sketches, as a means of developing ideas and visualizing their potential. For her ceramics, she incorporates hand building alongside the Japanese pottery technique known as nerikomi, which involves splicing and designing patterns with strips of colored clay. “My material choices are a way of thinking about natural processes: color gradients as the continuous nature of change, a multitude of colors as potential, abundance, and vitality, and patterns as signals and communications,” she says. Hovering between worlds, Baek’s work populates a speculative environment in which beings morph, mutate, and blossom, their individual features forming an otherworldly lineage that’s recognizable but not identical. While “temporarily and imperfectly captured in a moment of many possible transformations,” the works beckon us into a world in which change is not only inevitable but also the most alluring proposition. Life Forms is Baek’s Chicago debut.An opening reception will be held on March 20, and the artist will be present.About the artist: Janny Baek is an artist and architect born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Queens, New York. She received her BFA in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design, and worked as a sculptor in animation and toys before completing her Master's in Architecture at Harvard University. Baek brings her experience as a sculptor, designer, and architect to her ceramics today. After founding her firm, McMahon-Baek Architecture, in 2014, she returned to the medium in 2019. Her work is part of the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and has been shown at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Korea Society, and the Korea Ceramics Foundation, among others. Baek currently lives and works in lower Manhattan with her husband and their two daughters.

Janny Baek: Life Forms

April showers brings us a solo show with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.manvshadow.com/erik-jon-olson-shadowboxx-collective-artist" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Erik Jon Olson, ShadowBoxX Collective Artist</a>. Olson is renowned for his unique large-scale artwork that uses quilted plastic waste to illustrate the amount of waste material we produce, prompting viewers to reconsider and reevaluate their relationships to plastics. His work also addresses how our unfettered capitalism and mass consumption can waste our natural resources and damage our society.An ethos of minimal waste permeates Olson's creative process. Each piece is constructed of eight to 12 layers of used single-use plastic, which he quilts together using his grandmother's circa 1960 sewing machine. He uses overstock and leftover thread, plus scrap materials from his own production process. Schedule a Viewing (through 5/9)&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mev@manvshadow.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mev@manvshadow.com</a>

What A Waste: Erik Jon Olson

moniquemeloche is pleased to present&nbsp;<a href="https://t8j4tqkab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WFlU7W4LTgFBZidKvGk-GMgbTatLhIXDTDXTK7jM8dY5sXLY5vpWufokFIa7-Z6v2vm297gYuvzgHTc8bGuPIqYu2PYKarZUIwHeonRf9aDMhVCUExLDMYQiYZboyIRyz2htSIRpgHIpfTxEtLmZnSrxr9EDh7fZL5qJE2UvkihBOI7HJ2KYRw7ZsrKrz2Z1QVkjlvVuZDTH0K3qJ9qYwHtwBTcLSUWPjfK0-1R_74B5XFf3Oo8Xv0sxr0jR-Cv3&amp;c=nGgkeIwsfe9UL_xZO-29WGl_5YmQl-Fb87vI_J3KXBCesriRu7ojjA==&amp;ch=SqAS8I_H4_Ti55iNuqtnnuQW4QQbfns99j50vPiFwtDgQRNrLubvFw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ALL THERE IS</a>, an exhibition of new works by&nbsp;<a href="https://t8j4tqkab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WFlU7W4LTgFBZidKvGk-GMgbTatLhIXDTDXTK7jM8dY5sXLY5vpWuWHJ4Y7pHsvo9-PqZCzuP8QYWuRQAzr81_5O_kp4ZZWxaSmJAQ0oU6eQcu7ZgPozb2UFmmyR4KoSC5kSX-Cr9pVVxkszVVuNsplBIVabSYNdjJp4hXyMufZ0vQBHBRLwMq889KE6gCfQC7mxeVjQOfAF8jOUlqOLxg==&amp;c=nGgkeIwsfe9UL_xZO-29WGl_5YmQl-Fb87vI_J3KXBCesriRu7ojjA==&amp;ch=SqAS8I_H4_Ti55iNuqtnnuQW4QQbfns99j50vPiFwtDgQRNrLubvFw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cheryl Pope</a>. Pope is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose intimate studio practice centers on textile “paintings.” Working with needle-punched wool roving on cashmere, Pope creates richly tactile works that translate the language of painting into fiber, using material, texture, and color to explore memory, relationships, and the poetics of everyday life. For the artist’s seventh solo exhibition at the gallery,&nbsp;ALL THERE IS&nbsp;debuts a new body of landscape works that explore the spiritual and emotional resonance of the land as a site of recollection, silence, and shared human experience.&nbsp;The artist began this series after a residency at the Contemporary African Museum in Marrakech, Morocco, where travels to the Atlas Mountains and desert terrain evoked an immediate sense of recognition and belonging. Upon returning home, Pope continued her journey to the Abiquiú region of New Mexico, a site that carries familial resonance for the artist, where summers were spent by her father and grandmother. Together, these experiences, while separated by geography, awakened a mystical stillness inside the body, initiating a broader connection to the universality of the landscape. While Pope’s earlier works centered the physical body as a site of identity, vulnerability, and care, from her early work with underrepresented youth, to deeply personal reflections on love and family, to her celebrations of the female body, these new landscapes suggest the body has not disappeared but expanded, shifting from the visibility of the figure toward a more esoteric understanding of how human experience is embedded within the landscape.Drawing from modernist painting, slow cinema, and contemplative poetry, the works approach landscape as a site where emotional, geological, and psychological states converge. Art historically, Pope draws from traditions that understand landscape not as scenery but as a living presence. Like Georgia O’Keefe, Pope’s landscapes strip away narrative figures to focus instead on the inner architecture of place. The compositional clarity of Pope’s landscapes also recalls Roger Brown’s distinctive visual language, particularly his use of stacked horizons, simplified forms, and rhythmic patterning. Materially and formally, the works embrace a process of attentive listening. Shapes derived from photographic studies are reworked through memory and intuition, becoming compositions that emphasize rhythm, vibration, and the relational nature of color and texture. Unfolding in undulating strata, layers of ochre, sand, umber, and clay mix with unexpected bands of lavender, pink, sage, and deep green, suggesting both environmental time and a thoughtful color sensibility. The artist describes the process as closer to composing music than painting: each mountain functions as an instrument, its tones and tactile surfaces forming part of a larger symphony of land, light, and archeological record. Here, Pope’s wool fibers act almost as sediment deposits, a buildup only achieved by slow labor – literal time embedded in material.&nbsp;The title,&nbsp;ALL THERE IS,&nbsp;refers to a personal family story; words that were carved by the artist’s grandmother inside the wedding band of her grandfather. These words are a small but profound gesture that holds both intimacy and universality, and a candid confrontation to the bare truth of it all: that beneath the layers of narrative, culture, and history, the land remains vast, silent, and enduring. Here, Pope translates the emotional concerns that have long defined her practice, from intimacy, vulnerability, caregiving, and connection into geological form, where layered terrains become metaphors for the ways love accumulates, transforms, and endures.<a href="https://t8j4tqkab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WFlU7W4LTgFBZidKvGk-GMgbTatLhIXDTDXTK7jM8dY5sXLY5vpWufokFIa7-Z6v2vm297gYuvzgHTc8bGuPIqYu2PYKarZUIwHeonRf9aDMhVCUExLDMYQiYZboyIRyz2htSIRpgHIpfTxEtLmZnSrxr9EDh7fZL5qJE2UvkihBOI7HJ2KYRw7ZsrKrz2Z1QVkjlvVuZDTH0K3qJ9qYwHtwBTcLSUWPjfK0-1R_74BR07-C_gW1UH9XbDqtJtyg&amp;c=nGgkeIwsfe9UL_xZO-29WGl_5YmQl-Fb87vI_J3KXBCesriRu7ojjA==&amp;ch=SqAS8I_H4_Ti55iNuqtnnuQW4QQbfns99j50vPiFwtDgQRNrLubvFw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Learn more</a> Cheryl Pope,&nbsp;TEACH ME HOW TO BE VULNERABLE&nbsp;(detail), 2026

Cheryl Pope: ALL THERE IS

Material Memory&nbsp;explores how knowledge, history, and cultural memory are carried through objects and the act of making. Bringing together four artists working in ceramics, fiber, tapestry, and print, the exhibition centers analog processes, material investigation, and the slow accumulation of gesture and meaning.Through hand-built ceramics, bead-encrusted vessels, pony-bead tapestries, and meticulously carved relief prints, the artists in&nbsp;Material Memory&nbsp;examine how culture and personal histories are inherited, learned, and reinterpreted through labor, repetition, and intimate engagement with material. These works ask viewers to consider how objects embody memory, mediate identity, and carry stories across generations.Featuring:Chris Salas&nbsp;(Ceramics)Salas’s hand-built ceramic forms emerge through intuitive, iterative processes informed by personal relationships, historical research, and the ongoing legacy of colonization in the Americas. Clay becomes a vessel for cultural reckoning, holding layered histories through time-intensive making and surface.Katie Mongoven&nbsp;(Fiber, Beading)Mongoven transforms found blue-and-white ceramic vessels with intricate beadwork and embroidery. Her labor-intensive practice explores diasporic memory, identity reconstruction, and the reclamation of Orientalist objects through touch, repetition, and bodily presence.akeylah wellington&nbsp;(Sculpture, Tapestry)Wellington’s pony-bead tapestries and mixed-media sculptures blend humor, endurance, and personal history. Drawing on childhood imagery, early digital culture, and found materials, her work preserves stories of displacement, resilience, and generational inheritance.Ramiro Rodriguez&nbsp;(Printmaking)Rodriguez’s woodblock and linoleum relief prints document familial and cultural narratives rooted in Mexican-American print traditions. Through carving and layered printing, his work embeds memory, transformation, and inherited knowledge into the physical act of making.Together, the artists in&nbsp;Material Memory&nbsp;use material as language—foregrounding slow, analog processes as acts of remembering, learning, and transmission. Their works are deeply personal yet culturally resonant, tracing the invisible threads of inheritance that bind past, present, and future.

Material Memory

Woman Made Gallery is pleased to announce&nbsp;<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=349683bcce&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Seeds of Resilience</a>, a multidisciplinary art exhibition featuring work by 41 artists.&nbsp; Curated by Monica J. Brown and Nora Moore Lloyd,&nbsp;Seeds of Resilience&nbsp;brings together women and non-binary artists whose works explore how personal, cultural, and ecological survival are deeply intertwined. Centered on themes of environmental justice, ancestral memory, and the intimate relationship between care and resistance, the exhibition takes the seed as its guiding metaphor.<ul><li>Opening reception on Saturday, April 11, from 4–7 p.m.</li><li>Closing Reception with Artist Walkthrough on Saturday, May 9 from 2–4 p.m.</li></ul> EXHIBITING ARTISTSBrooke Bartholomew, Sharon L Bjyrd, Sharon Bladholm, Gabriella Boros, Julia Bustos-Vasquez, Julie Carpenter, Emily C-D, Lynn Cox-Winston, Sharmon Davidson, Victoria Fuller, DiDi Grimm, Senyah Haynes, Lisa Marie Phoenix Jackson, Natalie Jackson, Adia Jamille, Linye Jiang 江麟冶, Joi, Lilly Kim, Yuliya Klochan, Sarita Kvam, Tulika Ladsariya, Beatriz Ledesma, Andi Linden, Marian Lyndgaard, Lauren Macklin, Erica Moriarty, Stephanie Mulvihill, Andryea Natkin, Courtney Nzeribe, Pamela Penney, Laurie Peters, Leah Schenbaum, Erin K. Schmidt, Piper Snowber, Dorothy C. Straughter, Harriette Tsosie, Chanya Vitayakul, Gail Wagner, Joan Wheeler, Marjorie Woodruff, Stella Zee CURATING TEAMMonica J. Brown&nbsp;is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores memory, history, and personal mythology through visual art, sound, movement, writing, and performance. She has exhibited widely across the U.S. and internationally, completed prestigious residencies, and received grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.Nora Moore Lloyd&nbsp;(Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, born 1947) is a multidisciplinary artist whose photography and videography center Indigenous storytelling, elder voices, and traditional cultural practices. A longtime member of Chicago's Native American community, she has exhibited at major institutions including the Field Museum, the Chicago History Museum, and The Block Museum of Art. VISIT&nbsp;<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=bf2a429fb7&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">THIS EXHIBIT</a>&nbsp;AT WOMAN MADE GALLERYAddress: 1332 S. Halsted St, ChicagoHours: Wednesday through Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. Image: artwork by&nbsp;<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=bf6c1a7f6a&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emily&nbsp;C-D</a>)

Seeds of Resilience

This exhibition is a collaboration with Loyola University's Fine Arts Division, including student and faculty work from both institutions.&nbsp;The show will feature works that convey meaning through embodied art practice. Pieces that explore the rich history, tradition, and cultural expression of contemporary sculpture, including ceramics, glass, and stone, as well as innovative, reinterpretative sculptural works using non-traditional materials that push the boundaries of visual art.

Material Inquiry

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" target="_blank">Hyde Park Art Center</a>, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is proud to announce&nbsp;Yoonshin Park: Prompt and Prompted, an exhibition highlighting the artist’s, as well as her students’, experimental ways of creating artist books that push the boundaries of what books can be. On view from&nbsp;January 24-May 10, 2026,&nbsp;the exhibition offers hands-on experiences for the audience to make their own artist books on multiple dates throughout the duration. Both the exhibition and the public programs are free and open to the public. An artist book is an artwork that reimagines or transforms the form, function, or concept of a book into an expressive medium. For more than two decades, Park has used artist books as an experimental form and conceptual space to expand what books can be. For Park, the medium offers freedom that invites alternative ways of living other aspects of life, and invites the audience to live their lives as expansively as Park defines artist books. This exhibition presents new works that further her exploration of artist books as spatial, symbolic, and participatory sites capable of engaging notions of memory, marginality, translation, and transformation. More than a creator, Park is an arts educator of the medium. Since 2019, she has been teaching courses on artist books virtually through the Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studios, and has found her practice of teaching to be as generative for her as it is for her students. The title of the exhibition refers to the reciprocal exchange that takes place in Park’s classroom. The exhibition includes artworks by 12 of Park’s students, including Kimberly Bailey, Miriam Bisby, Priya Deb, Devie Dragone, Bryne Hadnott, Rebecca Kelly, John Michael Korpal, Carol Lett, Camille Levi, Sumiah Salloum, Virginia Van Vynckt, and Max Washington. Park shares how this presentation differs from past work: “This exhibition marks a shift in my practice from intimate, book-inspired gestures to spatial and communal forms, allowing me to explore how books can extend beyond the page. I hope visitors experience the work as an invitation to engage with their own stories and with spaces—both in books and in the gallery—in new ways, noticing how meaning and connection can emerge through shared interaction.” Free public programs include the following:Wednesday, January 28, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, February 11, 1pm Artist-led workshopThursday, February 19, 6pm Artist talk with Yoonshin Park and curator Mariela AcuñaWednesday, February 25, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-throughWednesday, March 4, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, March 18, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-throughSaturday, April 4, 1-4pm Center Day workshop led by one of Park’s students, John Michael KorpalWednesday, April 8, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, April 22, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, May 6, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-through This exhibition was curated by Mariela Acuña, art center Director of Exhibitions and Residency, and produced by Tran Tran and Liang-yu Huang, with fabrication support provided by Huang.&nbsp; <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1771018610/l1mhn1jbmv7qkttusjfz.png"> ABOUT THE ARTISTBorn in Seoul, Korea, Park now resides in Chicago. She has participated in residencies including the HATCH Residency at the Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center’s Center Program. She teaches at both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Hyde Park Art Center, and in 2024, served as curator and facilitator for the Hyde Park Art Center’s Bridge Program. Park has exhibited at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Center Gallery, Beverly Arts Center, Evanston Art Center, Riverside Art Center, Pablo Center and the AIR SPACE at Saint Kate Hotel in Wisconsin, and Simyo Gallery in Seoul, Korea, among others. She is represented by Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. ABOUT THE HYDE PARK ART CENTERHyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; an open-access community-based school with 2,000 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to 1,000 elementary school students in public schools; weekly and summer teen programs for 100 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connect residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections. For more information, visit<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" target="_blank">&nbsp;www.hydeparkart.org</a>.

Yoonshin Park: Prompt and Prompted

Krasl Art Center presents&nbsp;Malcolm Taylor: Prologue, The State of Play, on view February 7 through May 10, 2026 in the ArtLab. The exhibition opens with a free public reception on Thursday, February 6, from 6 – 8 PM.The State of Play&nbsp;marks Benton Harbor–based photographer Malcolm Taylor’s first gallery exhibition, offering an adventurous exploration of storytelling through action figure photography. Taylor stages intricate miniature sets and captures them in vivid, cinematic photographs that blur the line between play and narrative. Featuring characters drawn from comics, video games, and popular culture, the works are infused with humor, nostalgia, and imagination, inviting viewers into fully realized worlds at a toy-sized scale.

Malcolm Taylor: The State of Play

Mason Pott, born and working in Chicago, is a fine artist whose practice centers on traditional oil painting with a contemporary sensibility. Known for his vivid explorations of florals and color theory, he approaches each work with a deeply considered, multidisciplinary process.&nbsp;Every painting begins with a carefully staged, high-quality photoshoot of a floral arrangement—an essential step in&nbsp;shaping the composition, lighting, and emotional tenor of the&nbsp;final piece. From there, Pott hand-cuts an aluminum panel to&nbsp;echo the contours of the bouquet, creating a sculptural support&nbsp;that blurs the line between painting and object.This integration of form and subject transforms the still-life&nbsp;tradition, inviting viewers to engage the work as both image and&nbsp;physical presence. Pott’s practice reflects his belief in the&nbsp;interconnectedness of craft, intuition, and design.&nbsp;His meticulous attention to color relationships animates the&nbsp;surface of each painting, resulting in works that feel simultaneously timeless and distinctly of the present.&nbsp;He received his BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015.Image: Color Field [Purple &amp; Crimson} with Kale &amp; Grapes,&nbsp;2025, Oil on custom cut aluminum panel, 26 x 38 in., 66 x 96.5 cm

Chromatic Fields by Mason Pott

Special Event on Mothers Day (May 10)Deb Koo&nbsp;is an oil painter based in Charlotte, North Carolina, whose work reflects a refined balance between cultural perspective and painterly experimentation. She began her formal art studies at Smith College and went on to earn her MFA in Western Painting from Ewha Womans University in Seoul. A member of the Goodyear Arts Collective and a professor of art at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, Koo actively contributes to Charlotte’s creative community. Her work has been exhibited locally at Goodyear Arts, LaCa Projects, Sozo Gallery, and The Mint Museum Randolph, as well as nationally and internationally at Lorin Gallery in Los Angeles, Tchotchke Gallery in New York, and Delphian Gallery in London.

Material Offering by Deb Koo

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/a-beautiful-experience/?utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_TAgiwr9CcUCqp8PARBnetZDmy4oA4M6rKVEblEJGj0fYaKmL0n8Naot67z_PVofiAcW7Sb0wnbX5AHJQODsWXa0U2UYeyKUnYSDhaHXxDMn2lHxQ&amp;_hsmi=343424237&amp;utm_content=343424237&amp;utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Details</a> A Beautiful Experience: The Midwest Grotto Tradition&nbsp;takes its title from a slogan found on years of brochures, maps, and swag from the Dickeyville Grotto in Wisconsin. It is one of several grottoes found throughout the region. These sites began to inspire pilgrimage, tourism, reflection, and community gathering during the 1910s. This exhibition looks at their continuing influence on artists and visitors alike. Materially, midwestern grottoes often reflect local industries, decorative trends, and an area’s geological makeup. Grotto architecture mainly comprises concrete embellished with objects including shells, marbles, colored glass, toys, figurines, fossils, and geodes. This accumulation, as well as the objects incorporated, creates a documentation of the maker’s life, faith, and home. Madeline Buol is one of the few known women grotto builders. The materials she utilized include figurines and stones gathered during her travels. She had a special affinity for shells of all shapes and sizes. The exhibition is the first public showing of Buol’s monumental thirteen-piece grotto since it was saved from the artist’s yard in 2011 by the Kohler Foundation, Inc. It was then gifted to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. In addition to Buol’s grotto,&nbsp;A Beautiful Experience&nbsp;includes objects related to the Midwest grottoes that directly inspired her, such as the Dickeyville Grotto, Jacob Baker’s “dream houses,” the Rudolph Grotto, and the Wegner Grotto. The exhibition illustrates the material histories of these grottoes and strategies for their conservation. Visitors are offered opportunities to learn about the legacy and care of Midwest grotto sites. A Beautiful Experience&nbsp;also includes new work by Stephanie Shih and E. Saffronia Downing, each responding to the grotto tradition. Shih presents a work inspired by Jacob Baker and Chinese immigration in the U.S. Downing shares her explorations of clay and material foraging throughout the Midwest, providing insight into material studies for the concrete and construction materials often invented and improvised upon by grotto builders. Image: Madeline Buol, Buol Grotto and Sculptures (site view, n.d.), Dubuque, IA, 1946–c. 1960. Photo courtesy of Pam Mendenhall.

A Beautiful Experience: The Midwest Grotto Tradition

Photographer of the Year 

Opening: Friday, April 10th, 6-10pm. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/issy-wilson-boundary-layer-opening-at-pagoda-red-tickets-1985607690052?aff=oddtdtcreator&amp;utm_source=Pagoda+Red+Master+List&amp;utm_campaign=d349add43a-20260108_NewArrivals_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_d5a5331306-d349add43a-106923209&amp;goal=0_d5a5331306-d349add43a-106923209&amp;mc_cid=d349add43a&amp;mc_eid=3e481c464e" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" target="_blank">RSVP is required.</a>Herbaceous tequila tasting by Inspiro TequilaImmersive Listening Experience with Catieooooooo A series of multi-media paintings by London-based artist Issy Wilson, Boundary Layer explores the liminal space between earth and air, an overlooked micro-ecosystem where moss cultivates its own conditions for survival. A pioneer species that can shape its surroundings, moss challenges the idea of borders as impenetrable and attests to the impact of quiet perseverance. Dwelling in the boundary layer, mosses are living tapestries with porous and continually renegotiated borders.&nbsp; In a moment when political and social systems increasingly seek to solidify borders and regulate movement, moss suggests an alternative—one rooted in permeability, mutual support, and resilience.&nbsp; Each Boundary Layer work is inspired by London in winter, where mosses emerge as vivid interruptions to misty tones of gray and brown. Dotting the urban landscape like small, forested worlds, the moss bejewels its stark surroundings with moments of color and softness. Even in conditions of constraint, moss continues to thrive, reshape its surroundings, and create new possibilities for growth.&nbsp; Wilson’s paintings symbolize resilience without spectacle, adaptability without erasure, and resistance without domination. Her quiet landscapes remind us that transformation is possible, even when it occurs slowly and in overlooked spaces.

Issy Wilson: Boundary Layer

Gallery VICTOR is proud to present&nbsp;Bruno Surdo, a major exhibition of new work by one of Chicago’s most accomplished contemporary figurative painters. Opening April 11 and continuing through May 16, 2026, the exhibition begins with a public reception on Saturday, April 11 from 12–6 PM.For nearly three decades, Gallery VICTOR has represented Surdo, whose work occupies a rare space where the discipline of Old Master painting meets the urgency of contemporary life. Trained in the atelier tradition, Surdo’s practice is rooted in rigorous draftsmanship, anatomical precision, and the technical lineage of Renaissance and Baroque painting. Yet his subjects are unmistakably of our time, charged with psychological intensity and shaped by the social, emotional, and cultural realities of the present.This exhibition offers a sweeping and immersive view into Surdo’s current direction, bringing together monumental multi-figure narratives, intimate portraits, allegorical compositions, and exquisitely rendered anatomical studies. In works such as&nbsp;Crossroads of Time&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Union of Different Skies, Surdo constructs densely populated urban scenes that function as contemporary stages, spaces where anonymity and intimacy collide, and where individuals exist both together and profoundly alone. These compositions recall the grandeur and complexity of historical painting while confronting the fractured nature of modern experience.Alongside these expansive narratives, Surdo turns inward, exploring vulnerability, desire, and emotional exposure through more focused imagery. Paintings such as&nbsp;Daydreamer,&nbsp;Dreams of Hope, and&nbsp;Guardian&nbsp;capture fleeting yet deeply human moments, while works like&nbsp;Martyrdom of Freedom&nbsp;and&nbsp;Venus of America&nbsp;introduce a sharper, more confrontational edge. In these pieces, Surdo engages directly with contemporary cultural tensions, using symbolism and allegory to probe issues of identity, power, and societal fracture.Equally compelling are Surdo’s mythologically inflected works on paper and canvas, including&nbsp;Ganymede’s Seduction,&nbsp;The Harpies, and&nbsp;The Riddle. Drawing from classical sources, these works reframe archetypal narratives through a contemporary psychological lens, collapsing distinctions between myth and lived experience. Here, Surdo’s ongoing dialogue between past and present becomes especially vivid, revealing the enduring relevance of ancient forms in articulating modern consciousness.Throughout the exhibition, Surdo’s technical mastery remains unwavering, but the emotional tenor of the work pushes into increasingly personal and unguarded territory. The paintings reveal an artist deeply engaged with memory, identity, and the complexities of the human condition, unafraid to confront both beauty and disquiet with equal intensity.A second, more intimate presentation,&nbsp;Bruno Surdo: Unfiltered, will take place at the artist’s studio in Evanston on Saturday, May 2 from 12–4 PM. This special event will offer rare insight into Surdo’s process, with a focused exploration of his work centered on the human body and the raw immediacy of direct observation.Bruno Surdo was born in Chicago and has exhibited widely across the United States, with work held in numerous private and public collections. He is also a dedicated teacher and lecturer, recognized for his commitment to sustaining and advancing the tradition of figurative art.Later this year, Gallery VICTOR will present a special exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, centered around Surdo’s monumental painting&nbsp;Tragedy, Memory, and Honor. First exhibited at Chicago’s Daley Center, the work stands as one of the artist’s most powerful and unflinching achievements, a deeply moving meditation on collective loss, remembrance, and national identity. Its return to public view offers a rare opportunity to encounter a work that confronts history with both gravity and humanity. <a href="https://galleryvictor.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5e6a1ed366983a0ba9bbe21e1&amp;id=d0c86e304f&amp;e=c95ff8b063" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Off the Wall: In Conversation with Bruno Surdo | April 25, 10 AM - 12 PM</a>

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