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

A self-taught photographer, Kirill Polevoy, first started making photographs with an old Russian film camera "Zorki" in 2003. In 2010, he switched to the digital format and primarily works in black and white. Kirill currently resides in Chicago, where heconcentrates on street photography with an occasional landscape."In this show, I invite you to look beyond what you’ve known as beautiful. It can be provocative and miserable, sad and youthful, self-absorbing and loving." –Kirill Polevoy, from the 'Allure' catalog prefaceImage: Kirill Polevoy,&nbsp;Ghost, Chicago,&nbsp;archival pigment print,&nbsp;21&nbsp;x 17&nbsp;inches framed

Kirill Polevoy: Allure

This nature inspired exhibition highlights the impressive work by Liaung-Chung Yen, Judith Neugebauer and Huiyu Chiu. Each artist has unparalleled craftsmanship, utilizing traditional metalsmithing techniques to create sculptural statement jewelry with botanical motifs. Join us on April 26, 2025 to celebrate this exhibition! Enjoy a glass of wine and charcuterie as you mingle with fellow jewelry enthusiasts and admire the work.

Petals, Leaves, Roots & Seeds

The “Inside/Out” Exhibition at the Grove Gallery in Evanston, IL&nbsp;explores concepts of the window as metaphor. Windows, whether open or closed, represent dualities: freedom vs. constraint, order vs. chaos, and possibility vs. limitation. The window metaphor sets up narrative elements that address boundaries. In some cases, the viewer is outside, looking in. Conversely, the perspective may be from indoors, looking up and out into the horizon. Some paintings are rooted in fantasy, with colorful, surreal characters freely floating in space. Others are purely depictions of light-filled rooms, with curtains billowing in the breeze. The layered meanings within each picture plane keeps viewers guessing, projecting their own narratives onto each scene. A picture window creates the illusion of depth, whether with pure color or with linear perspective. Regardless of each artist’s technique and intention, the window metaphor is open to interpretation.&nbsp; Artists: Nicole Gordon, David Gista, Leslie Hirshfield, Fletcher Hays, Ellen Holtzblatt, Jennifer Presant, Sarah Kaiser-Amaral, Eleanor Speiss-Ferris, Ken Minami, and Caitlin Winner. The Grove Gallery&nbsp;619 Grove StreetEvanston, IL&nbsp;Hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 7 PM&nbsp;Website: <a style="color: rgb(56, 101, 115);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.grovegallery.shop" target="_blank">www.grovegallery.shop</a>

Inside/Out

On Friday, May 2nd, we will be hosting an art opening for featured artist Larry Simon.

Larry Simon, people|places|things

Artist Talk: Sat, April 26, 10am Concrete Gardens translates Patrick Burns' deep love of the land into richly textured mixed-media monochrome paintings. Burns spent his youth on farms in rural West Virginia, an experience that imparted a love of nature. Prior to earning his MFA, Burns was quarterback of his Division 3 college football team. Today, he has perfected the art of urban gardening and channels this passion into unconventional materials. His art practice focuses on the peculiarities and contradictions of American life and the complex narratives within American history.Image: Ultrablue Garden 03, mixed-media work by Patrick Burns

Patrick Burns: Concrete Gardens

First Saturday, Evanston, May 3, 1:00 - 6:00 PMArtist's Talk Sunday, May 18, Noon The exhibition features organic abstract shapes connected by rivers, streams or floods suggesting issues of climate change.&nbsp;The shaped paintings are flat but give the illusion of three dimensions. Hours:&nbsp;Saturdays 1:00 - 5:00 pm(May 24, 1:00 - 3:00 pm)Sunday's 2:00 - 4:00 pmOr by appointment:&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(36, 36, 36);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:joannapinsky@msn.com" target="_blank">joannapinsky@msn.com</a> Image: Awash 46" x 72" Acrylic on 2-D Shaped Gatorboard

AWASH: Paintings by Joanna Pinsky

‘Right Back at It Again,’ on display May 2-31, unpacks the art of making art, drawing on the slapstick surrealism of classic cartoons to affectionately lampoon the day-after-day struggles and sacrifices that creatives face. Its 27 acrylic paintings depict the beginningless and endless cycle of artistic life, death and rebirth via the hyper-exaggerated visual grammar of Looney Tunes-style mayhem: i.e., heads spontaneously combusting, anvils falling from the sky and all the other stuff that Wile E. Coyote’s nightmares are made of.&nbsp;

Steve Seeley: Right Back At It Again

As an early kick off to Chicago art week, we are pleased to announce the opening of Fracture to Flourish, a showcase featuring 10 national artists. Featuring:Adrian AvilaMarcos AlvaradoGretchen AdelMaria LaurenoJacob RochesterMason Pott&nbsp;Lindsey KircherTara Lewis&nbsp;Liz Flores&nbsp;True Markham

Fracture to Flourish

22 April - 31 May 2025Chicago Mariane Ibrahim is pleased to present&nbsp;Under&nbsp;the&nbsp;Flickering Light of&nbsp;the&nbsp;North Star,&nbsp;the gallery’s inaugural solo exhibition&nbsp;with&nbsp;Atlanta-based artist Michi Meko.&nbsp;On paper and canvas, his work layers tactile materials as narrative elements, taking the viewer from moments of stillness to bursts of action that explores the artist's contemplations on the legacies of critical geographies, particularly those of the American&nbsp;South.&nbsp;&nbsp;Through his abstract landscape&nbsp;paintings, Meko guides audiences into the quiet anxieties of terrains that&nbsp;conjure&nbsp;ecological&nbsp;histories as&nbsp;wisdom.&nbsp;His&nbsp;brushstrokes&nbsp;map&nbsp;the dichotomies of rebellion and reflection through the contrasting use of a an imposing and often monumental dimly lit dusk, and the application of phosphorescent light and textural details that pop up from the canvas, as if offering a mediative look at the inherent tensions within landscapes.&nbsp;&nbsp;Meko’s cartographic&nbsp;perspective, shaped by geographic storytelling, reveals&nbsp;the ecological memory embedded in the land,&nbsp;which&nbsp;informs and shapes his studio practice. His rebellious mark-making creates layered narratives of fugitivity and survival, where the American landscape serves as both a backdrop and a starting point for his examination of race, place, and memory.&nbsp;&nbsp;By limiting himself to five core materials, Meko forges a cohesive yet evolving dialogue&nbsp;that&nbsp;resounds&nbsp;Southern ingenuity to build&nbsp;density&nbsp;from&nbsp;minimalism.&nbsp;This constraint&nbsp;foregrounds&nbsp;the&nbsp;thesis&nbsp;of freedom and&nbsp;conflict between&nbsp;humans and&nbsp;nature, inviting the viewer to uncover oppositional&nbsp;textures and connections&nbsp;between the acrylic, aerosol, oil pastel, colored pencil, and gold leaf in each piece.&nbsp;&nbsp;Meko’s material rolodex&nbsp;captures&nbsp;the speed and immediacy of his gestures.&nbsp;&nbsp;His&nbsp;proficiency&nbsp;in&nbsp;layering—overlaying materials&nbsp;that&nbsp;shift chemistries and reveal new textures and hues—enables the emergence of&nbsp;new forms&nbsp;based&nbsp;on&nbsp;the chronology of each layer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The navigational syntax within&nbsp;You Good? Signal fire., 2024 is signature structure within Meko’s compositions. Drawing from the tradition of signal fires—used historically for urgent long-distance communication—Meko imbues these symbols with contemporary resonance.&nbsp;His marks&nbsp;are at once pragmatic and&nbsp;intuitive,&nbsp;building&nbsp;immense perceptual depth upon paper and canvas. These works invite introspection on the duality of the natural world, where the stillness of night awakens the horrors and histories that have shaped the land. Through these layers Meko builds upon an intergenerational vision, rooted in both contemporary and ancestral practices of&nbsp;escape&nbsp;and&nbsp;perseverance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Michi Meko will open a solo exhibition at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art this August in Savannah, Georgia.&nbsp;Under&nbsp;the Flickering Light of the North Star&nbsp;will open on April 22&nbsp;and&nbsp;continue through&nbsp;May 31, 2025.&nbsp; Image: Michi Meko, The Big Mental Pause, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Michi Meko: Under the Flickering Light of the North Star

August House Studio invites you to a special soirée celebrating the vibrant work of Crème Sheri, also known as Sheri Smith, in her solo exhibition. This event honors Smith’s captivating portraits of ten musical muses: Lenore Raphael · Barb Bailey · Josie Falbo · Marlene Rosenberg · Bobbi Wilsyn · Joanie Pallatto · Petra Van Nuis · Spider Saloff · Senabella Gill · Emily Cavanagh—Join us for an evening of art, music, and community, with libations and hors d'œuvres served. As for the closing, we invite you to an unforgettable closing celebration hosted by Mike Jeffers of Chicago Jazz Magazine. The evening promises art, music, and community in full swing. Highlights include a heartfelt tribute to the late Bob Ojeda, honoring his legacy at Jazz Showcase and with The Alternatives, and a special presentation to WDCB station manager Dan Bindert. It’s a night for artists, jazz lovers, and creative spirits—come raise a glass and celebrate with us! Closing Reception Event End Date: Saturday, May 31st 2:30 PM – 5:30 PM&nbsp;

When I See, When I Hear, I Draw… Musical Muses and Others

Interdisciplinary artist Cecilia Beaven creates mystical environments and narratives through her large graphic wall paintings. Her paintings and sculptures first appeared at the Art Center in&nbsp;Ground Floor&nbsp;(2020) and continued to develop on site during a Radicle Residency (2021). This exhibition will feature a new temporary mural, drawings, and small clay sculptures and tiles by Beaven featuring the women-centered worlds she has been illustrating over the past five years.Flickering Cocoon&nbsp;is the companion exhibition to<a href=https://oq8cplyab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001TBL0wigJGYcgrL3_2cl3AzDVOz2hkGlMHx_Vs8GHyKBmEfi2QV7a2q0mEcI0jNI7mSnelpwiYUfNjd4T-8zpDFnvkFsuspRfK108vqtZYkJmz4RdUIta6i5yfLW9X8YShuO5PEVMDsUJJDlX4ZblhpNs0_VkSBsgr_tCDPyOxEyRfQjfNPOlUjKo-WDvitzdKtfgp-q2MmJyklZyOWgevrQ-eXSoYgRRNIf4cN83QxQ=&amp;c=bAru49XNkKobVHqXchnjzrvx6q9wYUdrjIOA9jZCXGY_AXMq1QWCzA==&amp;ch=_1bN4_zu52St-L5tvuiVkpa--UuTHKpS9-gjoWpclqjCmnk4gMIXLg==>&nbsp;Semilla&nbsp;</a>concurrently on view in the Xicágo Gallery at the National Museum of Mexican Art from October 26, 2024 until March 30, 2025.<a href=https://oq8cplyab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001TBL0wigJGYcgrL3_2cl3AzDVOz2hkGlMHx_Vs8GHyKBmEfi2QV7a2q0mEcI0jNI7TBRL-55QGRV-aRdQaByc6amT7GXAAu8HSN95B6SkvQ-J3PC5uescm4Zhm0c1RtoLH3Yde9j3U5KybNyV5lcJHbGu8sX2XX1y8XKqY1nC9jh3_9UIGvfv3wWvptKi_7bqN7aUSIFLHjll-vI9wbd1fm5jtpDH0rtiPEr2hpEJrmY=&amp;c=bAru49XNkKobVHqXchnjzrvx6q9wYUdrjIOA9jZCXGY_AXMq1QWCzA==&amp;ch=_1bN4_zu52St-L5tvuiVkpa--UuTHKpS9-gjoWpclqjCmnk4gMIXLg==>Read More</a>&nbsp;Image:Installation view of the exhibition Cecilia Beaven:&nbsp;Flickering Cocoon

Cecilia Beaven: Flickering Cocoon

Admission to the Museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits and special events, visit&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(26, 39, 65);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu/" target="_blank">raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu</a>. ﻿The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is delighted to announce a solo exhibition with artist Clarissa Tossin, a native of Brazil living and working in Los Angeles.&nbsp;Clarissa Tossin: All That You Touch, You Change&nbsp;will feature moving-image, sculpture, drawing, weaving, and installation works. A highlight of the exhibition is the film installation&nbsp;Mojo'q che b'ixan ri ixkanulab / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing, which marks the first collaboration between Tossin and guest curator Jared Katz,&nbsp;former associate curator of the Americas and Africa at the Museum. The installation was&nbsp;recently featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial in New York.&nbsp;The title of the exhibition is drawn from Octavia Butler’s novel&nbsp;Parable of the Sower, which opens with the verses, “All that you touch / You change. / All that you Change / Changes you. / The only lasting truth / Is Change.” The verses encapsulate Tossin’s belief in our capacity to influence Earth’s ecological future. Within this exhibition, the artist explores how legacies of colonialism lead to harmful appropriative practices, rampant consumption, and destruction of Earth’s life-sustaining biodiversity, as well as the attempted privatization of, and extraction from, sovereign celestial bodies. Working in diverse mediums, she cautions<s>&nbsp;</s>that we are already experiencing climate crisis.&nbsp;Throughout Tossin’s work, she encourages people to join together to move away from our consumeristic behaviors in order to create lasting change. The exhibition brings together three bodies of Tossin’s work. The first comprises her reflections on Maya revival architecture, including two films—Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ch’u Mayaa—as well as a series of sculptures on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art. She recontextualizes Maya revival buildings, an architectonic style realized primarily by United States-based architects who borrowed motifs from a variety of Mesoamerican cultures at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tossin’s work imbues these colonized spaces with performances inspired by ancient Maya musical instruments, depictions of dance, and contemporary Maya poetry to reclaim this contentious revivalist architecture for Maya-descendant communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;The next body of work explores the impact of extraction and consumerism on the environment in works such as&nbsp;Encontro das Águas&nbsp;and&nbsp;Rising Temperature Casualty. Tossin places traditional Amazonian weaving practices in conversation with digital technology and consumeristic waste, primarily that of corporate Amazon delivery boxes and envelopes; she&nbsp;emphasize how this global corporation is harming the very environment and peoples after which it is named<s>.</s>&nbsp;Finally, the artist considers the impact of expansionist and extractive colonial mentalities that are embedded in our approaches to the privatization of space exploration and mining. Works such as&nbsp;Maritime Arrivals,&nbsp;Future Geography, and new commissions by the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art address how celestial bodies are recognized as sovereign under international law and are sacred to many cultures worldwide. Tossin views current international space law insufficient to regulate private corporations, the very ones<s>&nbsp;</s>that are primary contributors to global climate change. Her exhibition reveals how legacies of colonialism continue to have a profound impact on people, the planet, and now, space.&nbsp;This exhibition is organized by Jared Katz, former Associate Curator of the Americas and Africa at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, and is made possible by the Duncan Family Endowment, with additional support from the Kathleen and Richard Champlin Endowment, and the Friends of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Charter membership. Clarissa Tossin&nbsp;(b. 1973, Porto Alegre, Brazil; lives in Los Angeles) has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2023), the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2022), and La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France (2021), among others. Her work has been exhibited in numerous notable group exhibitions, including at the Whitney Biennial, New York (2024); Prospect 6 Triennial, New Orleans (2024);&nbsp;Shanghai Biennale (2023); Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2020); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2018); and the Hammer Museum’s&nbsp;Made in L.A., Los Angeles (2014). She is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including those from the Smithsonian Institute (2023), Graham Foundation (2020), Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2019), Artadia (2018), and Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2017–18). Tossin’s work is included in permanent collections of major institutions throughout the United States and Brazil. Tossin holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil. Image: Clarissa Tossin&nbsp;(Brazilian,1973, lives and works in Los Angeles)Corso del fiume delle Amazzoni fino a Marte, 2023&nbsp;Archival ink on used&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://amazon.com/" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a>&nbsp;envelopes23.5 x 20.5 in. (60 x 52 cm)Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo.&nbsp;Photo: Brica Wilcox&nbsp;

Clarissa Tossin: All That You Touch, You Change

Opening Reception: Friday, May 2, 2025 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM&nbsp;Exhibition Dates: May 2, 2025 – June 1, 2025&nbsp;&nbsp;Oliva Gallery is honored to present&nbsp;Osamenta, a powerful photographic exhibition by Herminio Rodríguez that explores the landscapes of decay and resilience across Puerto Rico. Rodríguez’s work captures a profound narrative of socioeconomic hardship, offering audiences a deep look into the often-overlooked aftermath of economic recession, governmental debt, and natural disasters on the island. In Osamenta, Rodríguez shares the results of a six-year journey through Puerto Rico’s seventy-eight municipalities and its islands, Vieques and Culebra. During this time, he documented abandoned industrial sites, deserted commercial properties, and once-thriving government buildings left to deteriorate. Each photograph is an intimate study of desolation, revealing the effects of Puerto Rico’s prolonged economic struggles under U.S. Tax Code 936, a series of hurricanes, and the ongoing debt crisis. Through his lens, Rodríguez examines the haunting beauty in these relics of economic ambition, now neglected and fading. Herminio Rodríguez: A Journey of Discovery and Reflection Rodríguez’s approach goes beyond mere documentation; it is a personal and introspective search to understand Puerto Rico’s landscape in the face of its current economic realities. From large industrial facilities once governed by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) to private commercial properties that fell victim to the island’s economic downturn, each structure he photographs stands as a silent witness to Puerto Rico’s complex history. His dedication to photographing interiors reveals a layered narrative of decline, abandonment, and an eerie beauty that resonates with similar histories in places like Detroit, where economic collapse has left entire districts forsaken. Rodríguez’s exhibition is further enriched by personal notes and reflections that accompany each image. These brief texts serve as a diary of his journey and experiences, capturing the social, physical, and technical challenges he faced. Each entry offers viewers a more personal insight into Rodríguez’s journey, inviting them to see through his eyes and feel the weight of the story behind each space.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1733774707/op2epbvw5zl4nmfe3eho.jpg">

Herminio Rodríguez: Osamenta

Meet the artist at:Gallery Night Friday 4/11 5-9 pmGallery Day Saturday 4/12 11 am- 6 pm Impression &amp; Enchantment: The Artwork of Yana Movchan is a dual exhibition featuring the extraordinary talents of Yana Movchan. This collection explores the captivating interplay between memory, nature, and imagination.Yana Movchan transports us to a realm where hyperrealistic figures intertwine with nature, creating powerful symbolic narratives. Her meticulously crafted works combine classical techniques with surrealistic elements, inviting reflection on themes of innocence and transformation. A graduate of the Ukrainian Art Academy, Yana has exhibited her award-winning art across Europe and Canada, now residing in Halifax. Top image: Yana Movchan, Rabbit and Poppies, 12 x 16"

Expression & Enchantment: The Artwork of Yana Movchan

Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to present&nbsp;Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!, an exhibition of new works by&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/exhibitions/tony-tasset/" target="_blank">Tony Tasset</a>. This is the artist's first show with CvsD. The centerpiece of the exhibition is "Brick Barrow," a new sculpture in bronze patinated to an incredible lifelikeness, but just out of scale, magnified to a point of being eerily more than real, perhaps unreal. Another 3-D work, a cast aluminum eagle, finds the national bird taking on an expressionistic but slightly defeated mien. On the perimeter of the South Gallery hang Tasset's new paintings, a spectrum of monochromatic canvases distressed in spots, sometimes to the point of having ragged holes. Perched like a putty eagle somewhere between the elegant and the pathetic, these works are augmented by a new video work, "My Lear," produced by and co-directed with Jennifer Reeder, enjoying its world debut in the North Gallery space, featuring the artist performing a Shakespeare monologue in his studio. Tony Tasset (b. 1960, Cincinnati, OH) lives and works in Sawyer, Michigan. Major exhibitions of Tasset's work include&nbsp;Front International: Cleveland Triennial&nbsp;For Contemporary Art;&nbsp;2014 Whitney Biennial, curated by Michelle&nbsp;Grabner;&nbsp;Tony Tasset:&nbsp;As It Is,&nbsp;Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati;&nbsp;MCA DNA: Chicago Conceptual Abstraction,&nbsp;1986-1995, Museum of Contemporary&nbsp;Art, Chicago;&nbsp;This Will Have Been: Art, Love &amp; Politics in the 1980’s, curated by Helen Molesworth,&nbsp;ICA, Boston;&nbsp;Life During Wartime, Walker Art Center; and&nbsp;Unnatural Rubber, Andy Warhol Museum. Tasset’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum für Moderne&nbsp;Kunste, Frankfurt, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco MOMA; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; The Baltimore Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum Of Contemporary&nbsp;Art Chicago. Image: Tony Tasset,&nbsp;Brick Barrow,&nbsp;2025, bronze with patina, 35 x 55 x 74 inches, edition 2/3 + 1 AP.

Tony Tasset: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!

Robell Awake’s chairs are skillfully handmade with great reverence and appreciation for the work and techniques of under-recognized Black craftspeople throughout history. Awake continues a rich tradition of updating the ladder back chair, using inlaid materials and carved patterns rife with meaning and relevance.&nbsp; Six new chairs are replete with allusions to spiritual practices, echoing historically sacred imagery calling for divine healing and protection. They feature carved faces, symbols, and creatures drawing from various talismanic practices of the African diaspora. Patterns of eyes reference a 2000-year-old tradition of Ethiopian magic scrolls, custom protective scrolls prescribed by healers combining sacred symbols with written prayers. Imposing faces with bared teeth are reminiscent of Edgefield face jugs, face-shaped ceramic vessels made by enslaved potters in South Carolina. Awake’s use of meaningful objects for protection alludes to a deep history including Hoodoo and Conjure, magical traditions in which spiritual power is invoked for healing and self-defense, and African American yard shows, an assemblage tradition going back generations. The yard shows of America’s Black Belt, ambitious outdoor art installations where ordinary materials are sanctified, reflect the resilience of people using the materials at hand to express themselves. With these new chairs, Awake is exploring the spectral nature of our digital lives with inlaid cords, cables, and arrangements of zeroes and ones from bygone numerical systems, embedding the language of the virtual into the physical. Concerned with the fragility of identity formation online, he examines the precarity of our digital selves—simultaneously fabricated and highly visible. His chairs become talismanic objects, crafted not just as functional seats but as protective wards in the digital realm. By merging traditional craftsmanship with symbols of the online world, Awake transforms everyday furniture into sacred artifacts, offering a tangible anchor in an era where identity is often elusive, overdetermined, and over policed. Awake’s process is rooted in pre-industrial technique, relying on hand tools and working with green (or unprocessed) wood. He begins by splitting whole logs—primarily oak, with hickory used for the rungs. After carving the backs and legs, he adds intricate visual details, incorporating line drawing and relief carving, which are then painted to highlight the textures and forms.&nbsp; Awake’s work centers Black aesthetic traditions and histories, creating objects that are both deeply rooted and radically forward-looking. By intertwining traditional modalities with contemporary anxieties about the digital self, he highlights the ways in which technology both connects and destabilizes us as well as the countries that bear the brunt of resource extraction and technological production. His chairs serve as bridges between past and present, between tangible heritage and intangible existence, urging us to consider how we ground ourselves in an increasingly spectral world. They embody the weight of history while addressing the urgent realities of our present—an era of collapsing empires and ecological crisis, in which both people and the planet are endangered. By merging ancestral practices with contemporary concerns, Awake’s talismanic chairs serve as acts of resistance and resilience, grounding us in traditions of survival, expression, and protection. The exhibition’s title, Human Resources, is a pointed nod to the insidious nature of the term, which reduces people to mere assets to be managed, extracted, and exploited—an unsettling parallel to the historical and ongoing commodification of labor, identity, and even digital existence. Human Resources will be on view through June 7, 2025. Robell Awake is a recipient of the Center for Craft’s Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship and has taught at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Penland School of Craft, and the Woodworking School at Pine Croft. He has presented at the Furniture Society, Warren Wilson College, Berea College, Washington College, and the North Bennet Street School. Awake was recently selected as one of the Dwell 24, Dwell magazine’s awards for the best emerging designers from around the world. His recent book, A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects, published through Princeton Architectural Press (2025), features ten illustrated essays on handcrafted objects and their makers, providing invaluable insight into Black history and craftsmanship, and was the subject of an exclusive segment on National Public Radio. His work is included in important public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, and he is producing a forthcoming commission for the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Robell Awake: Human Resources

old friends is honored to present&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.oldfriendsgallery.com/exhibitions/simplertimes" target="_blank">Micah&nbsp;Lewis-Văn&nbsp;Sweezie:&nbsp;Simpler Times.</a> Pictured: Untitled (Bronze Chair), 2024, Cast bronze, 35 x 14-1/2 x 15 inches

Micah Lewis-Văn Sweezie: Simpler Times

Faheem Majeed (b. 1976) is an artist, curator, educator, and non-profit administrator whose work focuses on institutional critique and centers collaboration as a tool to engage communities in meaningful dialogue. He received his BFA from Howard University and an MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Art. He is the recipient of the Field and MacArthur Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago Award, the Joyce Foundation Award, and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, and has been recognized as a Harpo Foundation Awardee. Majeed served as the Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center from 2005 to 2011 and currently serves as the Co-Director and Founder of the Floating Museum, an arts collective and non-profit that creates new models to explore relationships between art, community, architecture, and public institutions. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centre Pompidou, Highline, and the Hyde Park Art Center. Majeed’s sculpture highlights marginalized objects, histories, people, and places into powerful narratives that challenge and recontextualize their value, fostering dialogue and broader social change. Image: Faheem Majeed,&nbsp;Constellation - John Henry's 11th Hour, 2024-2025 (detail).&nbsp;Cedar, steel, and nails; 47 1/8 x 33 7/8 x 5 in.

Faheem Majeed

Anne Loucks Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of&nbsp;Abstract Narratives, a new exhibition in our Glencoe gallery featuring Lori Glavin, Grace Munakata, and Jenny Nelson. On view through June 10th, the show explores the color, texture and stories embedded in the work of these artists.&nbsp;For an exhibition checklist, please click&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(96, 96, 96);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.artsy.net/show/anne-loucks-gallery-lori-glavin-grace-munakata-and-jenny-nelson-abstract-narratives" target="_blank">here</a>.Lori Glavin’s paintings and monotypes are saturated with color, light, and bold shapes.&nbsp;She takes inspiration from everyday life and the natural world to collect, combine and layer&nbsp;forms, pattern, and rich color.Grace Munakata's&nbsp;mixed media paintings&nbsp;incorporate drawing, gestural marks&nbsp;and&nbsp;fields of color. Images from distinct elements cluster, evoking stories rooted in nature, conservation, memory and experience.&nbsp;Jenny Nelson's paintings&nbsp;employ spontaneous&nbsp;marks&nbsp;and tactile brush strokes. Her process of building up, editing, and taking away layers&nbsp;of&nbsp;color creates&nbsp;compositions that are&nbsp;energetic, balanced and responsive.Please stop in to see the show.&nbsp;We'd love to see you!

Lori Glavin, Grace Munakata & Jenny Nelson: Abstract Narratives

Ukrainian Artist in Residence, Nina Murashinko

The Richard J. Abrahamson Collection

The Richard J. Abrahamson Collection

Bert Green Fine Art&nbsp;is pleased to present our first solo show by Pennsylvania-based artist&nbsp;Dan Barry, and our second show by Chicago artist&nbsp;Mikey Mosher. Both artists will have limited edition prints in the BGFA booth #352 at&nbsp;EXPO Chicago 2025. Mikey Mosher&nbsp;intersects materials and techniques which are not normally combined; he is using carpentry, CNC routing, sewing, found materials, symbolic objects, and textiles to reference multiple historical styles of art making which are rarely ever seen together: Op Art, assemblage, quilting, fabric arts, and abstraction. Taking advantage of contemporary access to all kinds of materials and historical knowledge, Mosher is synthesizing compositions which would have been improbable in earlier eras. All gallery events are free and open to the public. Additional information found at the gallery website at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://bgfa.us./" target="_blank">https://bgfa.us.</a>&nbsp;Please forward to any interested parties. Mikey Mosher, Recalibration, Poplar, fabric, acrylic paint, 21 x 20”, 2025

Mikey Mosher: Crossroads

Bert Green Fine Art&nbsp;is pleased to present our first solo show by Pennsylvania-based artist&nbsp;Dan Barry, and our second show by Chicago artist&nbsp;Mikey Mosher. Both artists will have limited edition prints in the BGFA booth #352 at&nbsp;EXPO Chicago 2025. ﻿Dan Barry&nbsp;combines found objects, ephemera, and vintage frames with mark making and text to produce artworks densely layered with meaning and textural complexity. Tending toward smaller sizes, they engage the viewer on an intimate scale, and invite a dialogue with the work through close inspection. For this exhibition, BGFA has published a limited-edition archival pigment print of a reproduction of one of his earlier works. Dan Barry, As Funny As It May Seem, Found paper, graphite, cotton thread, antique frame, 13.5 x 10.5”, 20 x 16”, 2025

Dan Barry: As Funny As It May Seem

We hope you'll join us for an evening of arresting art, light refreshments and engaging conversation. All are welcome and there is always free parking in our open lot across the street and just to the north on Clybourn (look for the sign that says Jayson Home, Artists Frame Service and Chicago Art Source). What Dreams May Come&nbsp;will be on view in the gallery through June 14th and the virtual exhibition can be viewed&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chicagoartsource.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c1d50c8e60a2b190ac05b35b9&amp;id=1f59700307&amp;e=dea8511fc1" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;

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