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

Brendan Fernandes: In the Round

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

Temporary Solutions to Lifelong Problems

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

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

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

Stone Age: A Lithography Showcase

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

Leda and the Swan

MONUMENTS OF STILLNESS: Carole Feuerman Public Exhibition:June 2 – November 15, 2026 Ribbon Cutting &amp; Press conference:June 2, 2026 · 10AMWrigley Building400-410 North Michigan Ave.Chicago, Illinois <a href="https://hiltoncontemporary.com/exhibitions/carole-feuerman-monuments-of-stillness/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DETAILS</a>

MONUMENTS OF STILLNESS: Carole Feuerman

Becoming Words brings together Japanese calligrapher Hekiun Oda and Iranian calligrapher and visual artist Bahman Panahi. Their works begin with the calligraphic traditions of East and West Asia and take them somewhere distinctly their own. Both are interested in what happens when a word becomes an experience rather than a symbol, when calligraphy moves beyond representation and begins to embody concepts. Oda’s practice grows from Shodō, where brush, ink, body, and breath come together in a singular act. His work explores how written language can become a universal architecture of connection, while his engagement with natural phenomena transforms these words into states of movement, atmosphere, and presence. Panahi draws on the Persian tradition of Nastaliq, opening its forms toward abstraction, sound, and music. His concept of Musicalligraphy brings calligraphy and music into conversation, engaging words and ideas such as mehr—love, longing, and peace—not simply as subjects, but as ways of being. Though their vocabularies and cultural lineages are distinct, both artists treat the word as a portal into experience. Love, rain, water, and music can all become conditions of experience. The calligraphic act does not simply write the word, but becomes it. The exhibition is accompanied by live performances by both artists on the reception night, where calligraphy unfolds as a singular act, made in the moment and impossible to repeat. ​Additional artist talks and workshops will take place on separate dates throughout the exhibition. This exhibition is made possible through a collaboration between the Seldon Institute and the Heritage Museum of Asian Art, supported by the Research House for Asian Art. Program Series: Opening Reception and Calligraphy Performance​​ October 16, 5 - 8 PM​ | $​40​ Research House for Asian Art 3217 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608 Artist-led Tour During Open House ChicagoOctober 17, 1 - 3 PM | free Research House for Asian Art 3217 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608 Musicalligraphy: Immersive Workshop October 18, 1 - 4 PM | General Admission $80 Seldon Institute Calligraphic Dialogues October 18, 11 AM - 1 PM | free Seldon Institute Event registration: <a href="https://www.heritageasianart.org/2026becomingwords" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.heritageasianart.org/2026becomingwords</a>

Becoming Words: A Joint Calligraphy Exhibition

At RAM’s Wustum MuseumCynthia Toops is a polymer art pioneer who has been pushing the boundaries of the medium since the 1980s. The artist is well known for her micromosaic technique, which pieces together tiny shards of polymer into figurative or abstract compositions. Her distinctive style pulls inspiration from everyday events or objects, botanical subjects, folk art, and the cultural jewelry and ancient beads which she collects. While Toops works on her own, she also often collaborates with her husband, Dan Adams, who creates the glass beads and components featured in some pieces.

RAM Showcase: Cynthia Toops

at RAM’s Wustum MuseumStitched Stories: Narrative Quilts and Textiles&nbsp;brings together quilted, woven, and embroidered works from RAM’s collection that tell stories through fabric and thread. Whether incorporating representational imagery or utilizing abstraction, these small- and large-scale fiber works explore the multitude of ways in which textiles can be used to convey meaning. Drawing from both personal memory and imagined worlds, the artists represented in&nbsp;Stitched Stories&nbsp;demonstrate the versatility of fiber as a medium for storytelling as they transport viewers to faraway lands—from the bottom of the ocean to outer space. Significantly, several artists with Wisconsin ties are represented, underscoring the rich history of textile production in the state.

Stitched Stories: Narrative Quilts and Textiles

<h3>Linework: </h3><h3>Chicago Comics and Community</h3> September 24 – November 21, 2026Opening Reception: Thursday September 24 | 5:30–7:30 PM Chicago has long been an important center for comics and graphic storytelling. During the early decades of the twenty-first century, the publication Linework, under the guidance of acclaimed cartoonist, designer, and educator Ivan Brunetti, became a gathering point for many of the most compelling voices in Chicago’s contemporary comics scene. Bringing together emerging and established artists, the publication fostered a moment of creative exchange that helped shape the city’s reputation as a hub for alternative comics. This exhibition revisits the Linework publication and the artistic community that formed around it, highlighting both the collaborative spirit of the project and the paths its contributors have taken since. Among them is Chicago-based cartoonist Nick Drnaso, whose graphic novel Sabrina became the first graphic novel longlisted for the Booker Prize. Image: Ivan Brunetti, self-portrait

Linework: Chicago Comics and Community

<h2>Winter Camp</h2>A group exhibition of artworks and original screen prints featuring Wyatt Hersey, Anna Valdez, Melissa Lakey, and Esther Pearl Watson. In collaboration with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thejaunt.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">The Jaunt</a>.&nbsp; October 23-November 21, 2026

Winter Camp

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce a solo exhibition by Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago; lives in Chicago) for its latest&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=b49b61817e&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" target="_blank">Chicago Works</a>&nbsp;presentation, titled&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction.&nbsp;Opening on May 2, 2026, in the MCA’s Turner Gallery and closing on February 7, 2027, the exhibition presents a series of newly commissioned works that continue Cloud’s experimentation with abstraction, symbolic language and the sculptural dimensions of painting.&nbsp;Cloud challenges historical framings of abstract painting as pure and apolitical, approaching his works instead as products of their political contexts and the capitalist systems through which they circulate. Crudely constructed from wooden stretcher bars, thickly layered in painted signs, and protruding into three-dimensional space, Cloud’s sculptural paintings are objects, rather than pristine surfaces, that possess a deliberately improvisational and, in his words, “unschooled” aesthetic. The artist sources his subjects from online news outlets, often alluding to contemporary stories of suffering and tragedy through his enigmatic visual vocabulary, developed over two decades. Forms resembling snowflakes, rainbows, four-leaf clovers, hearts and hands densely cluster across his canvases, which are stapled to configurations of stretcher bars that hover between abstract structures and recognizable shapes.The new paintings made specifically for this exhibition extend these strategies while foregrounding three recent developments in Cloud’s practice: emojis, an “X”-shaped painting, and the protrusion of his works off the wall and on to the floor of the gallery. Through the use of hinges, the paintings become modular, endowed with the capacity to be folded, installed upright, and exhibited in multiple configurations. Cloud’s work embodies the slipperiness of symbols, the malleability of meaning, and the potential for freedom within ambiguity.&nbsp;Cloud will be in conversation with exhibition curator Nolan Jimbo on May 2, 2026, in the Edlis Neeson Theater.&nbsp;Mike Cloud is the 27th artist to participate in&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=dd5f8f7c3d&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" target="_blank">Chicago Works</a>, a solo exhibition series at the MCA that features artists who are shaping contemporary art in the city and beyond.&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction&nbsp;is organized by Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator. ABOUT THE ARTISTMike Cloud was born and raised in Chicago. He earned a BFA from the University of Illinois Chicago (2001) and an MFA from Yale University (2003). He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University.&nbsp;Cloud’s solo exhibitions include&nbsp;Circle Chat, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2025);&nbsp;Called Ahead, Fahrenheit Madrid (2024);&nbsp;The Myth of Education, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2018);&nbsp;Bad Faith and Universal Technique, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (2014);&nbsp;Systems, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2006); and&nbsp;Special Project: Mike Cloud, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2005). He has also participated in group exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Good Weather, Chicago; White Columns, New York; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Cloud received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024, the Richard Pousette-Dart Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ in 2023, and the Jules Guerin Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2023.At the MCA, Cloud previously participated in the group exhibition,&nbsp;The Long Dream&nbsp;(2020), and his work,&nbsp;Cycle and Stable&nbsp;(2015), resides in the museum’s collection. His work is also held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.&nbsp; SUPPORTGenerous support for&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction&nbsp;is provided by the Sandra and Jack Guthman Chicago Works Exhibition Fund. Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago, IL; lives in Chicago),&nbsp;Poison Arrows South Africa, 2026. Acrylic on canvas, hinges, pegs, rope, and watercolor tape; 48 × 47 × 75 in. (121.9 × 119.4 × 190.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Photo: Colleen Keihm.

Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction

A Rare Master Print Portfolio from the Collection of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and CultureThe National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture invites you to experience a rare and historically significant work from its permanent collection: the&nbsp;Primer Centenario de la Abolición de la Esclavitud&nbsp;(First Centenary of the Abolition of Slavery) print portfolio.This limited-edition portfolio commemorates&nbsp;March 22, 1873, the date Puerto Rico formally abolished slavery. Published in 1973 to mark the centennial of this historic event, the edition consists of only&nbsp;115 print portfolios. The Museum is honored to steward&nbsp;edition number 110, preserving this important cultural and historical document for public study, education, and collective memory.This collection was generously donated to the Museum in 2023 by Diego Figueroa, whose contribution has made this rare and significant portfolio accessible to the public, scholars, and future generations.

Abolición

You’re Invited to Experience&nbsp;El Café&nbsp;Portfolio by Master Artist Rafael TufiñoThe National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture invites the public to experience&nbsp;El Café, a seminal linocut portfolio by master artist&nbsp;Rafael Tufiño—a foundational body of work rooted in community, cultural identity, and lived experience.Created between 1953 and 1954 in the barrio of Vegas Arriba, Adjuntas, one of Puerto Rico’s historic coffee-growing regions,&nbsp;El Café&nbsp;emerged from Tufiño’s immersive fieldwork among rural coffee workers. Living within the community, he documented the full cycle of coffee production—from cultivation and harvest to roasting, brewing, rest, and celebration—transforming everyday labor into a powerful visual narrative of dignity, care, and belonging.Through seven linocuts, Tufiño presents jíbaro life with intimacy and respect, emphasizing hands, bodies, and gestures rather than romanticized distance. Coffee becomes more than a crop—it is ritual, inheritance, hospitality, and cultural memory. The series culminates in a communal celebration marking the end of the harvest, where labor gives way to music, joy, and collective resilience.El Café&nbsp;stands as both an artistic and cultural document—affirming Tufiño’s belief that art should speak to the people, reflect their lives, and honor their knowledge.We invite you to visit the exhibition and encounter a profound visual meditation on Puerto Rican rural life, labor, tradition, and community—where art, history, and culture meet in everyday ritual.Collection of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (2023).Courtesy of the Rafael Tufiño Succession

Rafael Tufiño: El Café Portfolio

At the Art Preserve: May 5, 2026–January 10, 2027At the Arts Center: May 30, 2026–December 6, 2026 This exhibition will bring together for the first time the work of two artists who have both dedicated their lives, through their multifaceted artistic processes, to healing.After a life of rambling,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jmkac.org/artist/blagdon-emery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(38, 62, 148);" target="_blank">Emery Blagdon</a>&nbsp;(1907–1986) settled on his family’s homestead in Garfield Table, Nebraska. Many members of his family had been afflicted with cancer. Convinced of the healing potential of the unseen forces of the earth, Blagdon spent forty years constructing “The Healing Machine.” Using largely tin foil, masking tape, Christmas decorations, and wire, Blagdon sought to harness magnetism, electricity, and other energies to surround visitors with positive forces. JMKAC has owned “The Healing Machine” since 2004. Guadalupe Maravilla migrated to the United States from El Salvador, unaccompanied, at age eight. At thirty-six, he was diagnosed with cancer, which he links to inherited trauma. During treatment, Maravilla connected with Indigenous healing practices, including sound baths—ceremonies that harness sonic vibrations from gongs, conch shells, and other instruments to restore calm and balance and release toxins in the body. He began making sculptures, paintings, performances, and large-scale installations that incorporate found objects related to his own migration story and various gongs and bowls, which he activates to conduct sound ceremonies. Blurring art, science, and medicine, he calls these activations “healing machines.”At the&nbsp;Arts Center, central to the exhibition is Maravilla’s Mariposa Relámpago, a school bus that has been reimagined as a healing temple. Throughout the exhibition, the healing machines will be activated by Maravilla and various other healers, playing the sculptures to turn on and amplify the energy in the gallery—transforming the space into an immersive healing environment. For the coinciding installation at the&nbsp;Art Preserve, Maravilla’s El Espíritu de Mariposa Relámpago Disease Thrower, a monumental bronze snake with a butterfly head, lightning bolt, and gong, serves as a central altar. Surrounded by Blagdon’s energy-focusing paintings and a selection of Maravilla’s retablos, this installation harnesses the energy held in the shed formerly occupied by Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine,” while it is on view at the Arts Center.

Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body

This exhibition will bring together for the first time the work of two artists who have dedicated their lives, through their multifaceted artistic processes, to healing.After a life of rambling, Emery Blagdon (1907–1986) settled on his family’s homestead in Garfield Table, Nebraska. Many members of his family had been afflicted with cancer. Convinced of the healing potential of the unseen forces of the earth, Blagdon spent forty years constructing “The Healing Machine.” Using largely tin foil, masking tape, Christmas decorations, and wire, Blagdon sought to harness magnetism, electricity, and other energies to surround visitors with positive forces. JMKAC has owned “The Healing Machine” since 2004.Guadalupe Maravilla migrated to the United States from El Salvador, unaccompanied, at age eight. At thirty-six, he was diagnosed with cancer, which he links to inherited trauma. During treatment, Maravilla connected with Indigenous healing practices, including sound baths—ceremonies that harness sonic vibrations from gongs, conch shells, and other instruments to restore calm and balance and release toxins in the body. He began making sculptures, paintings, performances, and large-scale installations that incorporate found objects related to his own migration story and various gongs and bowls, which he activates to conduct sound ceremonies. Blurring art, science, and medicine, he calls these activations “healing machines.”At the Arts Center, central to the exhibition is Maravilla’s Mariposa Relámpago, a school bus that has been reimagined as a healing temple. Throughout the exhibition, the healing machines will be activated by Maravilla and various other healers, playing the sculptures to turn on and amplify the energy in the gallery—transforming the space into an immersive healing environment.For the coinciding installation at the Art Preserve, Maravilla’s El Espíritu de Mariposa Relámpago Disease Thrower, a monumental bronze snake with a butterfly head, lightning bolt, and gong, serves as a central altar. Surrounded by Blagdon’s energy-focusing paintings and a selection of Maravilla’s retablos, this installation harnesses the energy held in the shed formerly occupied by Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine,” while it is on view at the Arts Center.

<a href="https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/2026/picturing-the-modern-metropolis.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a> In the 20th century, many artists working in the United States were drawn to the city as subject matter. Towering skyscrapers, crowded intersections, and dynamic street scenes that emphasize the fast tempo of urban life became familiar ways of representing the modern metropolis. Using exaggerated form and fragmentation, artists sought to convey the sensory experience of urban spaces. These artists were also proposing new ways of understanding the city by experimenting with modernist forms to represent the spaces that we share with one another. The exhibition includes over 100 prints and photographs from The Block's collection, focusing primarily on the 20th century. It brings together well-known artists, such as Edward Steichen, Vivian Maier, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol, alongside Chicago-based artists including Henry Simon and Yuichi Idaka. Each consistently engaged with the city as a subject in their practice, focusing on the sensory and visual experiences of cities, but also bringing in representations of ideals long associated with life in the city–mobility, diversity, belonging, and individual expression. Together, the artworks invite us to reconsider how artists helped shape our own impressions of the city and found in it a democratized subject matter, full of possibilities for creativity and freedom. Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block's Collection&nbsp;is curated by Eduardo Bello, 2025-26 Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, and Corinne Granof, Academic Curator, at The Block Museum of Art. The Graduate Fellow is generously supported by The Graduate School (TGS), Northwestern University. Image: Yuichi Idaka (American, 1914 - 2012), Untitled [detail] ca. 1946, Gelatin silver print 7 5/8 × 9 7/16 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Bauhaus Chicago Foundation, 2024.21.7. Courtesy of the Estate of Yuichi Idaka.

Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block's Collection

Annual Small Print Show opening on Dec 5 - 6, from 11 AM to 7 PM at WING Studio, 4883 N. Lincoln (60625).

Annual Small Print Show

Each year, The Block Museum of Art acquires new artwork for the collection through a student-led process. The 2025–2026 cohort of students recommended the purchase of and you, all future tense, leak through (2023) by Chicago-based artist&nbsp;Antonius-Tín Bui (they/them), seen on this wall. Bui’s wide-ranging practice spans hand-cut paper, community engagement, performance, and soft sculpture, often engaging with hybrid identities and complex relationships with the past. As a Vietnamese American, queer, and genderfluid artist, Bui offers beauty as a place of refuge for others from marginalized communities.&nbsp; Bui’s work is presented here in conversation with other works from the museum’s collection that pull on different strands of their practice, such as cutting, weaving, and movement, as well as evolving histories of place and material belonging.&nbsp; The Block’s annual student acquisition is undertaken by the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSAs), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates. <a href="https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/2026/the-block-collects-2026.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(52, 47, 46);" target="_blank">Details</a> Image: Antonius-Tín Bui (born 1992) and you, all future tense, leak through, 2023. [detail] Mixed media on hand-cut paper 2025–2026 Block Museum Student Associates acquisition, purchase funds provided by Craig Ponzio, the Rubens Family Foundation, and the Block Student Impact Fund, 2026.9

The Block Collects 2026

“It was a matter of getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you.” This memorable phrase is how Lee Miller—by turns a fashion model, magazine photographer, studio operator, Surrealist innovator, international adventurer, and battlefield correspondent—summed up her approach to life and creativity.&nbsp;Lee Miller: Fearless&nbsp;is the first comprehensive survey of her photographs in more than 25 years and gathers together the major episodes of her singular career. Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1907. Intrepid from the first, she moved to Paris at barely 20 years old, simultaneously seeking work in front of and behind the camera. She pioneered Surrealist techniques and broached daring sexual subjects with a readiness that magnetized experimental artists and fashion editors alike. Miller excelled at portraiture as well and pictured a range of cultural figures in the 1930s, most of them personal friends, from Charlie Chaplin to Pablo Picasso.&nbsp; By age 30 Miller had run commercial studios on both sides of the Atlantic; taken a star turn in art cinema and become an haute couture icon; and moving on from Paris to Cairo, influenced Egyptian modern art while reinvigorating her own work through travels in Egypt’s deserts.&nbsp; Yet she undertook a challenge of an entirely different order during World War II, especially as a correspondent for&nbsp;Vogue&nbsp;accredited with the United States Army in 1944–45. The inhumanities Lee Miller witnessed in Europe, especially at the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, brought out her courage and deeply contradictory emotions; the experience, which she chronicled in extensive written and photographic dispatches from the German front, also left her traumatized for a number of years. Following the war, Miller remade herself once more, gaining renown in England as a chef and gardener, while quietly continuing to lead an artistic life through her final years. Lee Miller died in 1977 on the East Sussex farm she owned with her husband, artist Roland Penrose.Lee Miller: Fearless&nbsp;is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago in collaboration with Tate Britain and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.&nbsp; The exhibition is curated by Matthew S.&nbsp;Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator, Photography and Media,&nbsp;and vice president for strategic art initiatives,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Art Institute of Chicago,&nbsp;and Hilary Floe, senior curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain,&nbsp;with Saskia Flower, assistant curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain, and Michal Goldschmidt, former assistant curator, Modern British Art, Tate Britain. SPONSORSLead support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris.&nbsp;Major support is provided by Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul, Suzette and Ally Bulley, Tara Hirshberg, and The Opatrny Family Foundation.&nbsp;Additional support is contributed by Anne L. Kaplan.&nbsp; Image: Self-Portrait with Headband&nbsp;(detail), about 1932Lee MillerLee Miller Archives. © 2026 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.leemiller.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(181, 9, 56);" target="_blank">www.leemiller.co.uk</a>

Lee Miller: Fearless

Prairie State College Art Faculty Exhibition will be held from November 16 to December 10. There will be a public reception on Wednesday, November 18, from 11am to 1pm.

Prairie State College Art Faculty Exhibition

A new exhibition of works by painter Eleanor Spiess-Ferris and her son, sculptor Michael Ferris.

Unfamiliar Patterns

The show brings together a wide range of original artworks and artist-made objects, including prints, jewelry, small sculptures, ceramics, decorative pieces, and other gallery-appropriate works. Most pieces are priced at $500 and under, with many available at lower price points, including works around $20 and up. Whether you are looking for the right gift for a loved one or a small piece to bring joy into your own home, this event offers it all! Admission: Free

Small Wonders: Year-End Gift Show

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is honored to announce the landmark exhibition of internationally acclaimed Italian artist Mimmo Paladino (b. 1948). A leading figure of the Italian avant-garde, Paladino’s paintings, sculptures, installations, films, prints, and illustrations are held in renowned public and private collections worldwide, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, and the Vatican Museums. He is also highly regarded for his site-specific commissions, which include the mosaic, stained-glass, and wall drawings of the&nbsp;Mary, Queen of Families Chapel&nbsp;at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. An overview of Paladino’s career will introduce audiences to the artist’s repertoire and highlight his position within the currents of art history through his paintings and sculptures. Following that contextualization, the exhibition will illuminate the master’s passion with literature and the art of the book through illustrations including his imagery for the&nbsp;Roman Messale&nbsp;for Pope Francis and a special edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy.&nbsp; The final section will examine the commission and creation of the&nbsp;Mary, Queen of Families Chapel, including the premier presentation of Paladino’s unique handmade vestments that he has donated to the Museum and University. Although Paladino is not exclusively a religious artist, this exhibition highlights his commitment to the great humanistic and spiritual traditions that have shaped his work while also acknowledging the contribution his contemporary voice has added to the history of art. “We are deeply honored to have worked with Mimmno Paladino for many years on many site-specific commissions and now this extraordinary exhibition. Most of this work—a celebration of humanity through art—has never been shown in the United States”,&nbsp;shares Joseph Antennucci Becherer, Director and Curator of Contemporary Art, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Born and trained in southern Italy, Paladino first gained critical acclaim in the 1980s as a member of the Transavanguardia movement, whose artists sought a renewal of figurative art and a willingness to experiment with materials in the wake of successive waves of abstraction in America and Europe. Living briefly in New York, Paladino’s life and work have always maintained a close connection to Italy’s broad artistic heritage, its people, and traditions. Although commissions from the Vatican and the University of Notre Dame have focused attention on his liturgical work, Paladino’s oeuvre is vast; he explores history, literature, and dream imagery through his iconography, creative vision, and innovative use of materials.

Calendar

Chicago Gallery News