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

Please join us for a new installation, Interrobang, by Jenal Dolson to kick off the project space at 65GRAND. Enveloped in an overtly bright, striped environment, Interrobang stages a dynamic interplay of color, pattern, and optical vibration, destabilizing perceptual assumptions and enacting a phenomenological encounter in which space, surface, and body are inseparably entangled. In this way, the paintings hold gesture as the body holds touch: as residue, as a lingering presence - embodying the interrogative tension of the interrobang itself. Image: Jenal Dolson,&nbsp;Play House,&nbsp;2026, oil and pumice on canvas, 41.25 x 34 inches

Jenal Dolson: Interrobang

Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Mythologies, a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Tim Anderson, on view August 21 through September 26, 2026. The works draw on a lifetime of research into world mythology — the ancient, the obscure, and the enduring — tracing the stories that have shaped human culture across every civilization since the beginning of recorded time, and long before. Mythology is not a relic. It lives on in literature, graphic novels, and film — in every retelling of the eternal struggle between good and evil, love and fear. What Anderson finds so compelling is not the differences between these stories across cultures, but their profound similarities. The names and faces change; the essential human truths beneath them do not. The works in Mythologies also sit with a deeper silence: the knowledge that the vast majority of cultures and civilizations that have existed on this earth left behind little that survives. Their stories, their wisdom, their ways of making meaning are largely gone. Against that absence, mythology functions as a thread of continuity — connecting what we know to what has been lost, and asking what it means that the same stories keep returning. Image: Tim Anderson, Aphrodite, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30”

Tim Anderson: Mythologies

Rockford Art Museum (RAM) opens the Rockford Midwestern Biennial exhibition on Friday, May 22, with a preview reception for museum members and exhibiting artists from 5 to 6 p.m., free public opening includes a gallery walk with 2026 Juror Laurie Hogin and an artist awards ceremony at 6 p.m. The museum will be open until 7:30 p.m. RAM, 711 N. Main St., Rockford.The exhibition remains on view through September 27, 2026. The 2026 Rockford Midwestern is the 78th presentation of Rockford Art Museum's juried exhibition, which began in 1913 as an annual showcase of local artists, then expanded eligibility and was known as the Stateline Vicinity Show through 1998. Now a biennial show that surveys new work by contemporary artists across the Midwest, the competition was open to original artwork, in any medium, created since the last biennial by residents of&nbsp;Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.&nbsp; Juror Laurie Hogin selected 98 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, mixed media works, and more from eight states (including nine artists from the Rockford region) for this year’s Rockford Midwestern Biennial.&nbsp;“It’s a stellar showcase of the incredible talent of Midwestern artists today,” RAM Curator Carrie Johnson said. Laurie Hogin received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her BFA from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where she also studied cultural anthropology. Her work is exhibited regularly across the country and is in numerous private and public collections, including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA, the Illinois State Museum, The United States Federal Reserve, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Brauer Museum, Valparaiso, IN, the Racine Art Museum, WI, among many others. She is currently Professor with Tenure and Chair of the Painting and Sculpture Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2026 Exhibiting Artists:&nbsp;Luke Achterberg (Onalaska, WI); Deidre Argyle (Springfield, MO); Nelson Armour (Chicago, IL); Karen Azarnia (River Forest, IL); Heidi Bailey (Warsaw, IN); Michael Banning (Minneapolis, MN); Audrey Barcio (Muncie, IN); Jason Beck (Rockton, IL); Victoria Bein (Edgerton, WI); Lauren Bertelson (Chicago, IL); Lois Bielefeld (Glendale, WI); Jill Birschbach (Evanston, IL); Rebecca Bissi (Racine, WI); Sharon Bladholm (Chicago, IL); Mark Blassage (South Bend, IN); Jennifer Bock-Nelson (Quincy, IL); Mark Brautigam (Milwaukee, WI); Deborah Brooks (Milwaukee, WI); H. Buchholz (Franklin, WI); Roy Cacek (Ankeny, IA); Rebecca Carlton (Fish Creek, WI); Danielle Casali (St. Charles, IL); Ethan Chan (Chicago, IL); Bob Cholke (Rockford, IL); Bobbye Cochran (Chicago, IL); Brent Cole (Muncie, IN); Bridget Conn (Nashville, IN); Benjamin Cook (Louisville, KY); Kevin Corotis (Oak Park, IL); Dragana Crnjak (Boardman, OH); Gary Cudworth (Oswego, IL); Geornica Daniels (Cedarburg, WI); Anita Dawson (Columbus, OH); Jacob Del Negro (Racine, WI); Sessah DelaRue (Belvidere, IL); Brian DePauli (Saint Louis, MO); Jason Dunda (Chicago, IL); Renee Meyer Ernst (Davenport, IA); Darlys Ewoldt (Chicago, IL); Deirdre Fox (Chicago, IL); Rhonda Gates (Rockford, IL); Shelley Gilchrist (Evanston, IL); Tanya Gill (Chicago, IL); Rita Grendze (Geneva, IL); Camryn Gulledge (Springfield, MO); Denis Hagen (Hiawatha, IA); Fletcher Hayes (Chicago, IL); Alan Hobscheid (Chicago, IL); Ellen Holtzblatt (Chicago, IL); Larsen Husby (Chicago, IL); Jeff Ignatius (Rock Island, IL); Shane-Jahi Jackson (Morris, IL); Noah Kashiani (Chicago, IL); Kara Knutson (Oconomowoc, WI); John Kurman (Arlington Heights, IL); Diane Lamboley (Clayton, MO); Isaiah Lee (Chicago, IL); CoCo Ree Lemery (Chicago, IL); Braydon Letsinger (Springville, IN); Diane Levesque (Kenosha, WI); Paula Kloczkowski Luberda (Naperville, IL); Tanya Lunina (Geneva, IL); Lisa Madden (Mokena, IL); Ellen Mahaffy (Eau Claire, WI); Valerie Mangion (Muscoda, WI); T. Michael Martin (Murray, KY); Madeline Martin (Milwaukee, WI); Aeron Maxwell (Chicago, IL); Don McCurdy (St. Charles, IL); Tom McHale (Rockford, IL); Nancie King Mertz (Rockford, IL); Ryan Peter Miller (Chicago, IL); Zach Mory (Glen Ellyn, IL);&nbsp;Thérèse&nbsp;Mulgrew (Chicago, IL); Louisa Murzyn (Munster, IN); Catherine Nelson (Grayslake, IL); Dan Oliver (Chicago, IL); Robert C Osborne (Racine, WI); Mark Pack (Kansas City, MO); Mielle Park (Vernon Hills, IL); Lorraine Peltz (Chicago, IL); Denise Presnell (Sheboygan, WI); Jessie Rebik (Galena, IL); Jason Reblando (Norman, IL); Kimberly Rodey (Wheaton, IL); Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch (Lexington, KY); Kurt Schabell (Loves Park, IL); Edwin Shelton (Michigan City, IN); Dan Simoneau (Kenosha, WI); DeAnna Skedel (Kansas City, MO); Shalen Stephenson (Chicago, IL); Kathy Snow Stratton (Buffalo, MN); Dan Swanson (Rockford, IL); Tori Tasch (Hartland, WI); Ron Testa (Wilmette, IL); Ged Trias (Rockford, IL); Mark Weller (Waunakee, WI); A M Yeager (Bloomington, IL) Awards will be presented at the preview for members and exhibiting artists on Friday, May 22, including the prestigious Dean Alan Olson Purchase Award ($2,000) plus Juror’s First Choice ($750), and two Juror’s Choice awards ($500 each). The Rockford Midwestern Biennial is organized by Carrie Johnson and juried by Laurie Hogin. This exhibition and its related educational programming are sponsored by the Dean Alan Olson Foundation; and partially supported by a grant from the&nbsp;Illinois Arts Council Agency. Free admission is sponsored for the duration of this exhibition by the Dean Alan Olson Foundation. Galleries are open Thursday through Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM. THE 2026 ROCKFORD MIDWESTERN&nbsp;EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMINGAll programs take place at Rockford Art Museum, 711 N. Main St., Rockford LECTURE WITH EXHIBITING ARTISTS&nbsp;THU, JULY 23, 5:30 PM, FREE, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, NO REGISTRATION REQUIREDJoin us for a conversation with exhibiting artists from our Midwestern Biennial as they discuss their inspirations and processes. COFFEE WITH THE CURATOR&nbsp;FRI, SEP 11, 9 AM, FREE, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, NO REGISTRATION NECESSARYGet a behind-the-scenes look into the process of curating the feature exhibition with Executive Director/Curator Carrie Johnson. Complimentary coffee provided.

2026 Rockford Midwestern Biennial

Jackson Junge Gallery is excited to hold its third group exhibition of the year, AFTER DARK. The artwork in AFTER DARK will focus on a city that never sleeps – Chicago. With its illuminated skyline, bustling entertainment venues, 24-hour food joints, and diverse cultural scene, Chicago has a lively atmosphere that extends into the late hours. But AFTER DARK will also delve into the hidden activities, people and places of the city. What happens late at night when no one’s looking?

AFTER DARK: GROUP EXHIBITION

In-person&nbsp;Artist’s Talk:&nbsp;Thursday Sept. 17th, 7 PM.&nbsp; Perspective Gallery is proud to present a new show by fine art photographer, Maria Finitzo. It will be the first public viewing of her work, titled, Ice &amp; Light which revisits a body of photographs made in 1993 on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic, one of the most remote and rapidly changing landscapes on earth. Unresolved at the time of their making, the original color transparencies were set aside for three decades before being rediscovered. Their return underscores both the material endurance of analog photography and the fragility of the subjects depicted. The ice shelves of northern Ellesmere Island, among the oldest in the Northern Hemisphere, have since undergone significant loss due to climate change, rendering these images a record of a landscape in disappearance.The Gallery will also host a companion show by Perspective member William Bridges. Titled “MY Photographic Memory?”, this exhibit features recent work in which he explores an alternate possible linkage between memory and photography.&nbsp;He writes, “Some people are said to have “photographic memories”, the ability to recall comprehensive, detailed pictures of everything they have ever seen.&nbsp;I am asserting that everyone has a photographic memory, but that the type of visual image differs from one person to the next. What I am trying to offer here are not crystallized pictures of the past, but photographs of how my recollections appear in my head.”&nbsp;

Maria Finitzo: Ice and Light

The work of West Michigan’s talented artistic community is on view during the annual&nbsp;West Michigan Area Show.&nbsp;This crowd-pleasing annual juried exhibition was carefully curated from more than 300 submitted entries, ranging from paintings, prints, and photos to mosaics, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, and mixed-media works.Local artists from 14 West Michigan counties submit their art for a chance to be juried into the show.&nbsp;More than $6,000 will be awarded and entries can range from paintings, prints, and photos to mosaics, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, and mixed-media works.2026 WMAS JurorThis year’s juror is Xuxa Rodríguez, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at Duke University’s Nasher Museum. Prior to her role at Duke, Rodríguez served as the Associate Curator of Contemporary Arts at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Rodríguez will present an ArtBreak lecture on Wednesday, May 27, at noon in the KIA auditorium.2026 WMAS Awards<ul><li>$1,000 Helen Sheridan Memorial Grand Prize</li><li>$ 500 Second Place</li><li>$ 400 Third Place</li><li>$ 300 Fourth Place</li><li>$ 200 Fifth Place</li><li>Portage Community Art Award</li><li>Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo’s People’s Choice Award</li><li>The Martin Maddox Prize for Imaginative Realism</li><li>Ninth Wave Studio Award for Ingenuity in Mixed Media or Intermedia</li><li>Art League Award</li><li>Signature Artists, LLC, Award</li><li>Eclectic Glass Guild of Southwest Michigan</li><li>Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilters’ Art Quilt Award</li><li>Southwest Michigan Printmakers Excellence in Printmaking Award</li><li>Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Book, Print, and Paper Award</li><li>West Michigan Potters Guild Award for Ceramics</li><li>The Ward H. and Cora E. Nay Director’s Purchase Prize</li></ul><a href="https://www.kiarts.org/events/tag/wmas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to see upcoming events in connection with this exhibition</a>.

2026 West Michigan Area Show

Bill Bridges: MY Photographic Memory

Racine Art Museum announces inaugural multi-arts festival; In/Between debuts

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

Gelsy Verna: Mother, Father, Please Help Me

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

Tangible Sound: Arrival to a Higher Ground 

Renaissance Court Gallery, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IllinoisReception: September 24, 3 - 5pm The Big Picture: Midwest Large Format Asylum: Large Format Photography, opening this August at the Renaissance Court Gallery in the Chicago Cultural Center.This exhibition brings together more than 70 works by photographers from the greater Midwest and beyond, celebrating the enduring vitality of large format photography — from historic view camera traditions to contemporary artistic practice.&nbsp;The show is organized by the Midwest Large Format Asylum, an association of large-format photographers, dedicated to continuing the traditional practices of large format photography and expanding them.At a time when digital photography and AI increasingly shape how images are made, The Big Picture invites us to slow down and consider the continued power of craft, attention, material process, and the hand-made image.The exhibition will also include artist talks, demonstrations, hands-on workshops, a cyanotype workshop, a large format self-portrait experience, and the Chicago premiere of George Tice: Seeing Beyond the Moment.Curated by Hillary Irene Johnson, MFAOrganized by the Midwest Large Format Asylum Alongside The Big Picture, we’re offering a full series of public programs exploring large format photography — from historic processes to hands-on experiences. Visitors can attend talks and demonstrations on wet-plate collodion, long-term documentary work, historic and contemporary cameras, cyanotype, photographic motion, and more. There will also be chances to make your own cyanotype and even create a large format self-portrait using a 4 × 5 view camera.Some workshops require advance registration. All events are free and open to the public at the Renaissance Court Gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center Workshops and Presentations 1. History of Large Format Photography and the Collodion ProcessThursday, August 13, 12:30–2:30 pmWet-plate collodion is one of the most important early photographic processes in the history of large format photography.Join Eric Nelson and D Anson Brody for a lecture and demonstration exploring the history, material beauty, and technical demands of this process, which requires each glass or metal plate to be prepared, exposed, and processed while still wet. 2. Creating a Long-Term Photo DocumentaryMonday, August 17, 12:30–2:30 pmWhat does it mean to build a photographic project over decades?Chris Walker has spent more than 30 years photographing youth culture through rural county fairs. In this program, he will discuss the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual choices that shaped the work, including his move from 35mm film to an 8 × 10 inch view camera. 3. Introduction to Large Format Photography: What’s the Big Deal?Thursday, August 20, 10:30 am–12:30 pmWhy do artists still choose large format photography in a digital age?This introductory program brings together historic and contemporary cameras, including Deardorff, Crown Graphic, Cirkut, stereo, and ultra-large format cameras. Photographers will share their cameras, examples of their work, and what continues to draw them to this slow and powerful format. 4. Taking Your Own Large Format Self-PortraitFriday, August 21, 10:30 am–1:30 pmExperience large format photography firsthand.In this hands-on program, Francis Fullam will guide participants in making their own self-portrait with a 4 × 5 inch view camera and direct positive paper. Photographs will be developed on site at the Renaissance Court Gallery.Space is limited to 20 participants, and advance registration is required.&nbsp;Register by calling the Renaissance Court Gallery (312) 744-4550. 5. Making Your Own CyanotypeThursday, September 10, 10:15 am–12:30 pmMake your own cyanotype.Cyanotype is one of the earliest photographic processes, known for its distinctive deep blue color. In this hands-on workshop, Ryan Zoghlin will introduce the process and provide materials for participants to assemble and expose their own images using sunlight.Participants will take home their finished cyanotype prints.Space is limited to 24 participants, and advance registration is required.&nbsp;Register by calling the Renaissance Court Gallery (312) 744-4550. 6. Screening of George Tice: Seeing Beyond the MomentMonday, September 21, 12:30–2:00 pmJoin us for the Chicago premiere of George Tice: Seeing Beyond the Moment.This 72-minute documentary offers an intimate look at the life, process, and artistic development of George Tice, an influential postwar photographer known for his work with the 8 × 10 inch view camera. 7. Reception: Come Meet The Big Picture PhotographersThursday, September 24, 3:00–5:00 pmJoin us for the public reception for The Big Picture.Meet participating photographers, view the exhibition, and learn more about the cameras, processes, and ideas behind the works on display. The exhibition includes large format photographs spanning abstraction, landscape, portraiture, still life, documentary photography, and more.Light refreshments will be served. 8. Expanding Photographic PossibilitiesMonday, September 28, 12:30–2:00 pmHow can still photography reveal motion?Seder Burns will discuss the history of photographic motion studies, from Eadweard Muybridge to contemporary experiments, and introduce his current work with a large format digital scanning camera he developed.This program explores new ways of seeing movement, time, and photographic possibility.

The Big Picture: Midwest Large Format Asylum: Large Format Photography

Special Note: This exhibition takes place at Glass Curtain Gallery – 1104 S Wabash Ave, Chicago, ILThe Museum of Contemporary Photography and School of Visual Arts at Columbia College Chicago proudly present the Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts &amp; Social Issues exhibition featuring 2025-2026 fellow Lali Khalid.Khalid’s exhibition will be on view&nbsp;June 25-October 3, 2026&nbsp;at Columbia College Chicago’s&nbsp;Glass Curtain Gallery&nbsp;with exclusive programming during Filter Photo Festival.In partnership with CAIR Chicago, Khalid’s multimedia project of video, audio, and photography represents personal narratives within Muslim culture and the everyday by providing a broader perspective beyond stereotypes and inviting conversation on belonging, resilience, and the importance of representation.Click the embedded links to learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lalikhalid.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lali Khalid</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://google.com/search?q=CAIR+Chicago&amp;rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS1078US1079&amp;oq=CAIR+Chicago&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDEzODlqMGo0qAIAsAIA&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CAIR Chicago</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.colum.edu/academics/initiatives/diane-dammeyer-fellowship" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Diane Dammeyer Fellowship for Photographic Arts &amp; Social Issues</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.colum.edu/academics/visual-arts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">School of Visual Arts</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.filterphoto.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Filter Photo</a>.

Diane Dammeyer Fellowship Exhibition: Lali Khalid

September 4–October 3, 2026 Opening Reception: Friday, September 4, 2026, 5:00–9:00 PM Closing Reception and Conversation: Saturday, October 3, 2026, 1:00–3:00 PM — Moderated by Chanelle Lacy Oliva Gallery presents Witness to Bedlam, a two-person exhibition featuring Olivia Petrides and Lynn Basa. Bringing Petrides’s fractured works on paper into proximity with Basa’s ceramic forms, the exhibition examines disorder through its physical traces. Through ruptured structures, obscured language, unstable surfaces, cavities, and accretions, Witness to Bedlam considers what remains after coherence has broken down. Rather than treating disorder as spectacle, Petrides and Basa work across paper and clay with rupture, compression, and residue, creating forms that are unsettled but deliberate, marked by seams, collisions, fissures, and the suggestion of an unnamed aftermath. Petrides presents works from her ongoing Split / Divide series, created with ink, gouache, and collaged newspaper on paper. Extended fields are interrupted by visible divisions, as though each composition has been broken apart and provisionally reassembled. Newsprint survives beneath veils of black ink and abrasive passages of yellow, pink, blue-gray, and mineral green. Printed language is cut, obscured, and absorbed into gestural surfaces, turning information into material. The works resist both conventional abstraction and descriptive landscape. They suggest damaged records, storm systems, geological faults, and walls layered with successive histories. Each composition holds together, but its unity remains visibly contested. Basa’s ceramic sculptures occupy related terrain through radically different means. Her forms shift between artifact, organism, vessel, fossil, and geological specimen. Surfaces are fissured, blistered, folded, and encrusted. Openings resemble mouths, vents, shells, or excavated chambers, with glaze and glass gathering inside cavities or clinging to irregular edges. The objects appear simultaneously ancient, damaged, and newly formed. Where Petrides works through division across the plane, Basa builds outward from rupture. Petrides preserves interruption through seams and exposed fragments of language. Basa transforms fracture into volume. Together, their work presents bedlam as a material condition that can be mapped, excavated, and observed without being resolved. The title Witness to Bedlam emphasizes the position of the observer. To witness is not necessarily to understand. Petrides and Basa do not impose order on disorder. Their work records its pressure, studies its remnants, and gives form to what remains difficult to name. About the Artists: Olivia Petrides is a painter, illustrator, and Associate Professor Adjunct at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught since 1985. She received an Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 2024 and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2021, in addition to multiple Illinois Arts Council project grants. Her research and residency history includes extended work in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. Lynn Basa is a Chicago-based artist whose work is held in numerous public, private, and museum collections, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the Tacoma Art Museum. Her work appeared in Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, organized by the American Craft Museum, and in the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling Threadworks exhibition. Basa has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, and Creative Capital. She is the author of The Artist’s Guide to Public Art and holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MPA in public art policy from the University of Washington.

Witness to Bedlam with Olivia Petrides and Lynn Basa

Papercutting as a creative handcraft has roots in many cultures, including centuries-old examples from China, the Polish tradition of&nbsp;wycinanki,&nbsp;and the Mexican history of&nbsp;papel picado. Celebrating handwork and recognizing its potential to connect across time, space, and geography, this exhibition combines various forms of papercutting.&nbsp;Through large- and small-scale works, contemporary makers expand upon tradition, adding their voices to rich creative lineages. To further illustrate this concept, shadow puppet theater utilizing paper silhouettes will be performed throughout the run of the show.Cut It Out&nbsp;is part of&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.handwork2026.org/" target="_blank">Handwork 2026</a>, Craft in America’s nationwide semiquincentennial collaboration showcasing the importance of the handmade and celebrating the diversity of craft that defines America.

Cut It Out: Papercutting Traditions and Beyond

For the People, By the People: America at 250&nbsp;looks to the nation’s impending semiquincentennial as an opportunity to reflect on America’s enduring ties to liberty, justice, and identity. Drawing inspiration from the democratic ideals articulated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, this exhibition considers how the promise of freedom has been expressed, questioned, and reimagined across generations. Organized into four thematic sections,&nbsp;For the People, By the People&nbsp;brings together artworks from the KIA’s collection and loans of historic significance and bold contemporary voices to examine the symbols, struggles, and aspirations that shaped and continue to inform American life.Spanning photography, printmaking, painting, sculpture, and installation-based works, this exhibition juxtaposes notable artists such as Dorothea Lange, Jacob Lawrence, Alfred Stieglitz, Hank Willis Thomas, and Andy Warhol with rising artists like Erica Lord, Julio Cesar Morales, and Cara Romero, among many others. From iconic images of migration and protest to neon text works and staged portraits that center Indigenous, African American, and diasporic experiences, the artists featured in For the People, By the People fashion and challenge the rhetoric and visual language of patriotism, social consciousness, labor, visibility, and belonging.Simultaneously celebratory and contemplative, this exhibition invites visitors to reflect on America’s founding principles and our current lived realities. By placing historic works in dialogue with contemporary practices,&nbsp;For the People, By the People: America at 250&nbsp;not only commemorates the nation’s 250th anniversary, but it also serves as a timely meditation on who “the people” were then—and who we aspire to be now.<a href="https://www.kiarts.org/events/tag/america250/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to see all events in connection with this exhibition</a>.﻿

For the People, By the People: America at 250

How do you throw a brick through the window… is inspired by artist and activist Johanna Hedva, who poses the question, “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?” Hedva’s statement questions the rights and opportunities of individuals with disabilities as they navigate forms of protest.Through new commissions and recent works, artists Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma look toward Hedva’s work to prioritize modes of dissent that influence personal, political, and social systems.&nbsp; Each artist uses strategies of movement, communication, interruptions in time and space, or moments of play to achieve such transformation. As Hedva suggests in her question, the most meaningful strategies for challenging cultural systems and governing bodies are actions that take place beyond the streets. By circulating these artists’ processes of resistance, this exhibition makes enacting a revolution become more approachable and possible on both individual and communal scales.How do you throw a brick through the window… is co-organized by Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC).

How do you throw a brick through the window…

Drawing with Metal: Sculpture by Bill Brady&nbsp;is&nbsp;the largest solo exhibition of the artist’s work outside his native Pennsylvania. Known for transforming tin-plated steel and welding rods into forms that evoke figures, machines, spacecraft, and whimsical abstractions, the retrospective features more than 40 dynamic sculptures alongside images from Brady’s sketchbooks. Curated by IAM Chief Curator&nbsp;Alison Amick,&nbsp;Drawing with Metal: Sculpture by Bill Brady&nbsp;features a selection of works from over five decades, providing insight into the imaginative sources behind the artist’s practice.&nbsp;

Drawing with Metal: Sculpture by Bill Brady

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

Silvio Barile

OS Projects is honored to present Fenestra Falsa, a solo exhibition of collages and paintings by Chicago artist Dan Devening. The exhibit opens August 8, 2026 and continues through October 10, 2026. A public reception for the artist takes place on Saturday, August 8 from 1 – 3 pm. Dan Devening is an image builder who combines decisive subject matter with gestural mark-making, spray enamel, collage and stitching to express a life experience shaped by the unexpected, the surprising and the unknown. Like much of what has held his interest over the years, the works in this exhibition engage the ways in which perceptual nuance and optical and spatial play come alive in compositions built on rigorously considered parameters. The project’s point of departure is the rounded rectangle, a shape that is ubiquitous in the devices that connect us to the outside world: iPhones, iPads, computer monitors and televisions. All these devices employ the "friendliness" of the rounded rectangle to suggest comfort and simplicity while effortlessly holding us captive. The shape’s affability—and invitation to use, peer into, and be mesmerized—mirrors the current state of culture, reflecting not only how we consume information, find entertainment and create connections but also the darker, more sinister undertones that are ever-present. The rounded rectangle also serves as a portal. It can frame an aperture or function as a window revealing a landscape. It can press outward against the picture space, swelling and suffocating the frame, as if straining toward its breaking point. This capacity, to both expand outward and pictorially recede and dissolve inward, makes the shape both flexible and multivalent, giving Devening room to explore the ways in which physical and perceptual experiences frame psychological response. Fenestra Falsa’s collages and paintings are fully grounded in the formal concerns of art making, offering the viewer the opportunity to be transported through purely material means. Form builds the image, reveals the subject and tells the story. Form creates chromatic intensity and calibrates the relationship between sharpness and blur, qualities that echo the devices that hold us hostage. Like those devices that incessantly demand speed and immediacy, the works in Fenestra Falsa induce the same pull toward absorption, elevation and immersion—only slowed down, stilled, held.

Fenestra Falsa

The annual exhibition highlighting paintings, drawings, photography, ceramics, prints, animation, and multimedia work by young artists participating in Hyde Park Art Center’s Teen programs&nbsp;opens June 27!Each year, the Teen programs provide a structured independence that encourages young artists to develop their creative voices, learn new skills, and build relationships in the context of a community-based art center, where artists of all ages and backgrounds do the same.&nbsp;﻿The exhibition celebrates the evolution of these young artists, who have taken on the challenge of expressing perplexed thoughts, feelings, and emotions into individual works of art.<a href="https://oq8cplyab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001Wqw2lXqKHjJMAiBTkE6UO4TiVroLZtRn2GPPCnysGocIMq16gCBCtVXI6Y9vNV4LnxnPaVVHOZWnzKTe-l23USIalPSlI06q5CL7CzRgNCeEoIk6f7wocRTKcxxQJ886DpVJ4VVccxRgQYJOzCB737DkeFGJtOWQxufxv6JTBtuqw7Y7PRy9b_FQSdyKkR949er9HwE-dA-10TaeUmQwb8xXNBu8915h&amp;c=uqF6ZiMKOJ3BPb8W17UMdPyQHbxBcvaEGSDlq7ILbiojHbm2qfxegw==&amp;ch=_7JCnwZR1ujgh7H7gi0opkTxAvwTXcSXYBZo_WloBO8fhoTgu8aUJg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LEARN MORE HERE</a>

Off the Wall! Teen Show

Charlotte Kaplan: This is Knot Art!

A duo exhibition featuring Emmy Star Brown and Danym Kwon. August 28 to October 17, 2026

Emmy Star Brown and Danym Kwon

Gallery VICTOR is honored to present&nbsp;Honoring Resilience, a special exhibition commemorating the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, centered on Bruno Surdo’s monumental painting&nbsp;Tragedy, Memory and Honor.Tragedy, Memory and Honor&nbsp;is one of Surdo’s most powerful and historically significant works. The five panel artwork measures 9 x 35 feet. Created in response to the events and aftermath of 9/11, the painting stands as a profound meditation on loss, courage, mourning, and the endurance of the human spirit. Through its sweeping scale and emotional force, the work invites viewers into a space of remembrance and reflection while honoring the lives forever changed by that day.Bruno Surdo is a celebrated Chicago artist known for his large-scale narrative figurative paintings and his sustained commitment to the human condition as a subject of contemporary art. Represented by&nbsp;Gallery VICTOR, Surdo has exhibited widely over several decades, and&nbsp;Tragedy, Memory and Honor&nbsp;has previously been shown in Chicago, including at the&nbsp;Daley Center&nbsp;in 2002 and 2003, as well as in galleries across the country. In recognition of the painting, Surdo received a letter of appreciation from former Mayor&nbsp;Richard M. Daley.This exhibition will extend beyond the painting itself. In addition to&nbsp;Tragedy, Memory and Honor, the presentation will include artifacts from Ground Zero collected by the artist while assisting in cleanup efforts two weeks after 9/11, along with a video documenting the creation of the painting, preparatory drawings and sketches, photography, testimonials, and historical materials. Together, these elements will provide visitors with a deeper understanding of the work’s creation, its historical context, and its lasting emotional impact.Presenting this exhibition in Chicago carries special meaning. As Surdo’s hometown, the city provides a powerful context for revisiting a work that has moved audiences nationwide. Gallery VICTOR’s historic setting offers an ideal venue for an exhibition of this scale and significance, giving viewers the opportunity to engage with a work that is not only a monumental achievement in contemporary figurative painting, but also a testament to collective memory, resilience, and compassion.More than two decades after 9/11,&nbsp;Tragedy, Memory and Honor&nbsp;remains a deeply relevant and moving work, reminding us of art’s capacity to preserve history, bear witness to suffering, and honor the strength of those who endure.The exhibition will premiere during the&nbsp;10th Annual River North Design District Fall Gallery Walk&nbsp;on&nbsp;Friday, September 11, 2026, from 5 to 8 PM. This special evening will offer the public its first opportunity to experience Surdo’s monumental work at Gallery VICTOR on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

Honoring Resilience

Friday evening, September 11, 5 to 8 PM. Misha Goro - Images of the City. River North Fall Gallery Walk, 5-8pm. On view through October 28, 2026.

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