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

Bert Green Fine Art&nbsp;is pleased to present our third solo show by Chicago native artist&nbsp;Jesse Howard.Jesse Howard&nbsp;is a Chicago native who has observed the rhythms and nuances of African American cultural life in Chicago over many decades. His artworks are meant not as portraits but rather as figurative typologies. meant to document and celebrate the rich variety of individual and collective expressions, showing the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. At the core of this work is a deeply felt, powerful pronouncement of the human spirit.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.

Artist Talk: Jesse Howard

The Newberry’s physical collection is vast, containing over 1.6 million books, 600,000 maps, 1,300 unique archival collections, and much more. Altogether, this material fills over 27.5 miles of shelving.In the mid-1990s, prompted by the rise of the internet, new imaging technology, and increasing demand, the Newberry began to digitize its material. While this work initially supported specific publications and exhibitions, the benefits quickly expanded. Now, digitization is central to our mission, making a significant and ever-growing portion of our holdings accessible to scholars globally, fostering new types of research, and engaging a broader public.This exhibit offers a snapshot of our&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://collections.newberry.org/" target="_blank">digital collection</a>, showcasing some of our most popular educational and interactive digital resources.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/from-page-to-pixel" target="_blank">Details</a><h3> </h3>

From Page to Pixel: Discovering the Digital Newberry

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/lecture-in-photography-bob-thall/" target="_blank">Lecture in Photography: Bob Thall</a> Thursday, March 12, 20266:00-7:30 pmMoCP600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL Please join MoCP and Columbia College Chicago School of Visual Arts for a Lecture in Photography with Bob Thall. *Ferguson Lecture Hall is located on the ground level of 600 S. Michigan Ave. For several decades, Bob Thall has been known for his formally rigorous and deadpan portrayals of the urban and suburban landscape in Chicago, photographing in sharp detail a view camera. His new project looks at cities across the US and his long term commitment to black and white large format work. Thall served on the faculty at Columbia College Chicago from 1976 to 2017 and chaired the Photography Department from 1999 to 2011. His work and scholarship have played a crucial role in the museum’s history and the broader educational landscape. Lectures in Photography is co-sponsored in partnership with MoCP and Columbia College Chicago School of Visual Arts.

Lecture in Photography: Bob Thall

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://experience.mcachicago.org/7252/7258" target="_blank">Get Tickets</a> Admission is free to Family Day attendees. This month find lost things and transform them into something new.Designed for children under 12 and their grown-ups, MCA Family Days invite our youngest visitors to be the museum’s artists, thinkers, and collaborators. Image: Family Day | Pocket Con, MCA Chicago, December 9, 2023. Photo: Alexis Ellers.

Family Day | Lost and Found

Wine Reception 6:00 pm | Concert 6:30 pmThe Arts Club of Chicago is thrilled to be partnering with At the World’s Edge, a spring festival forging new creative pathways between Aotearoa New Zealand, the UK and Chicago. Join us for&nbsp;Ængles, an evening of chamber music and the festival’s second program.The Old English word for the Germanic people who settled in Britain,&nbsp;Ængles&nbsp;is a playlist program exploring over 330 years of music from the UK and its close cultural connections.Hear music from the 16th century to the present day, with iconic works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Percy Grainger, a heart-wrenching piano Pavan by Tudor-era composer Thomas Tomkins, an Irish melody string quartet by late 19th century composer Frank Bridge, and works by living composers Huw Watkins and Eve de-Castro Robinson.Sliding Scale Tickets available from $5 to $20.For more information about this performance and the full AWE Chicago Festival 2026, visit&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://artsclubchicago.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=502da7c1672081e981f967563&amp;id=05660fbc83&amp;e=e3c33543d7" target="_blank">awemusicfoundation.org/chicago-2026</a><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://artsclubchicago.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=502da7c1672081e981f967563&amp;id=a3854858a1&amp;e=e3c33543d7" target="_blank">Register Here</a>

Evening Public Program: At the World’s Edge

The Italian Design Day reaches its 10th edition in 2026, with the theme RE-DESIGN: Regenerate spaces, objects, ideas, relations which aims to offer an opportunity for reflection on the role of design and architecture in improving everyday living spaces and the well-being of communities. On this occasion, Prof. Alessandro Rotta Loria, Louis Berger Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, will introduce the project Underground Climate Change, presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Developed through a study by the Subsurface Opportunities and Innovations Laboratory (Northwestern University), GEOEG, and ENERDRAPE, the project examines the effects of underground infrastructure and services in cities and the resulting creation of heat islands. This phenomenon, known as an underground climate change, is causing ground temperatures to rise by up to 2.5°C per decade, with local anomalies exceeding 70°C. These temperatures pose risks to building foundations, underground transportation systems, public health, and the environment. However, underground climate change also presents valuable opportunities to retrofit building envelopes and deploy geothermal technologies to reduce the diffusion of waste heat in the urban subsurface and enhance the sustainability of cities. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://iicchicago.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/italian-design-day-underground-climate-change-with-prof-alessandro-rotta-loria/" target="_blank">Free event with registration</a>

Italian Design Day / “Underground Climate Change” with prof. Alessandro Rotta Loria

Not a Soft Thing is a multifaceted exhibition by 15 artist/mothers spanning diverse cultural backgrounds, disciplines, and stages of caregiving. Together, this artist collective challenges the idealized narratives of motherhood, exposing the strength, struggle, and resilience that shape both art making and parenting. Through the media of painting, photography, ceramics, text, and installation, this exhibition explores the question: “What does it mean to create in the margins of care?” Some pieces are resolved and refined; others remain raw, incomplete, or in-process by design, revealing the realities of creating art in stolen moments. Collectively, the works reflect the fragmented time, emotional labor, and radical tenderness inherent in caregiving. Born organically through an interconnected community of artist mothers, this collective was founded as a space of solidarity. Not a Soft Thing is not only about their identity, but also about how they keep showing up—building community with and for one another creating, caring, and telling stories that shape contemporary art and culture. This exhibition is both a call to action and an invitation—to recognize caregiving not as a barrier to creativity, but as a powerful, generative force within it. Included in the exhibition are artworks uniquely designed to be kid-friendly and serve as an open invitation for audience participation, creating space for meaningful, memorable interactions for all generations. Exhibiting artists include A.Martinez, Angela Lopez, Aubrey Ingmar, Bobbi Meier, Connie Noyes, Cydney M Lewis, Jenny Halpern, Jihae Park, Katie Kirk, Keeley Haftner, Noelle Garcia, Orr Menirom, Sarana Mehra, Tulika Ladsariya, and Yemisi Oyeniyi.

Not a Soft Thing: A Group Exhibition by Artist Mothers

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is thrilled to announce the latest installation in its&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=5302a2f296&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">Atrium Project series, featuring the mural&nbsp;The Free Clinic for Gender Affirming Care&nbsp;by artist Edie Fake</a>&nbsp;(b. 1980, Evanston, IL; lives in Twentynine Palms, CA). Opening on March 25, 2025, and running through March 26, 2026, in the MCA’s second floor atrium, the artwork envisions the utopian façade of a clinic for free transgender healthcare. Curated by Assistant Curator Jack Schneider,&nbsp;The Free Clinic&nbsp;is a large-scale architectural representation of a clinic, whose prismatic colors reflect the full spectrum of gender expression beyond the binary. It confronts widespread political efforts to restrain, scapegoat, and repress transgender and nonbinary people in the United States, an issue that is personal to Fake. To him, “gender affirming care has been hard-won and life-changing . . . this mural is meant to meet the threat—and often reality—that has positioned gender affirming care as scarce, under-resourced, and underground with an aspirational and celebratory vision.”&nbsp; The installation coincides, and is in conversation with,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=f9f0473f52&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago</a>, an upcoming exhibition at the MCA opening on July 5, 2025, also curated by Schneider.&nbsp;City in a Garden&nbsp;examines Chicago's underacknowledged role in the histories of queer art and activism beginning in the 1980s, when activists radically mobilized in response to the US government’s disastrous handling of the AIDS crisis and reclaimed the historically pejorative epithet “queer” as a liberatory term encompassing all who purposefully deviate from heteronormative society. With works drawn from the MCA Collection and other local collections, the exhibition features over thirty artists—including Fake. Edie Fake’s work has previously been exhibited at the MCA in&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=8cfda8f3de&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now</a>&nbsp;(2021). Atrium Project: Edie Fake&nbsp;is curated by Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator.&nbsp; ABOUT THE ARTIST Edie Fake’s (b. 1980, Evanston, IL; lives in Twentynine Palms, CA)&nbsp;multimedia work—drawings, paintings, installations, comics, books, and zines—has been exhibited in solo shows at Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; and in New York City at The Drawing Center, Broadway Gallery, and Marlborough Gallery. Fake recently exhibited publications, paintings, and a large wall installation in&nbsp;Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now&nbsp;at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. His 2018 show at Western Exhibitions was reviewed in Art in America. Fake’s work is held in the collections of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library &amp; Museum, Columbus; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; RISD Museum, Providence; KADIST, San Francisco; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He was one of the first recipients of Printed Matter’s Awards for Artists, and his Gaylord Phoenix collection of comics won the 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. His work has been written about and featured in&nbsp;Artforum, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Art News, Art 21, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, The Comics Journal, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Fake’s work is held in the collections of the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, KADIST in San Francisco, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS. Edie fake was born in Chicagoland in 1980 and received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. Fake is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Broadway Gallery in New York, and he currently lives and works in Twentynine Palms, California.

Atrium Project: Edie Fake

Biba Schutz, Emilie Pritchard, Joanne Grimonprez and Sandra Salaices each explore the point at which architecture and jewelry converge. As we navigate through space, our bodies are constantly surrounded by the language of architecture. But how does jewelry enter this conversation? This exhibition exemplifies how our bodies can become the space that holds this architectural language.

Built for the Body: the Intersection of Architecture & Jewelry

<a style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.21cchicago.com/" target="_blank">21c Museum Hotel Chicago</a>&nbsp;is unveiling a new exhibition with&nbsp;Truth or Dare: A Reality Show. The exhibition opens to the public on March 15, 2025, and remains on view until March 2026 throughout the 21c Chicago gallery spaces. At a hotel where curiosity shapes every experience, the latest exhibition presents a thematic group exhibition of 70 multimedia artworks by 52 artists from across the globe exploring the slippery terrain between fact and fiction.&nbsp;Truth or Dare&nbsp;features works by artists Jorge Méndez Blake, Leandro Erlich, Vibha Galhotra, Jane Hammonds, Ann Hamilton, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Pedro Reyes, Federico Solmi, Siebren Versteeg, and many others, including Chicago-based photographer Laura Letinsky.Located in Chicago’s vibrant River North neighborhood,&nbsp;Truth or Dare: A Reality Show&nbsp;opens to the public with a reception on Friday, March 21stfrom 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. An introduction to the exhibition by 21c Museum Hotel’s Chief Curator, Alice Gray Stites, will be followed by a presentation by featured artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at 7 p.m. The world-class museum is free and open 24/7, 365 days a year.“Highlighting uncertainty and contradiction, the artworks featured in&nbsp;Truth or Dare: A Reality Show&nbsp;emphasize the importance of questioning both knowledge and belief by utilizing illusion to entice, entertain, and explore the contemporary relationship between fact and fiction, presence and absence, reality and imagination,” said Alice Gray Stites, Chief Curator of 21c Museum Hotels.The suspension of disbelief is invoked in works that simulate games, maps, and tricks of the eye and hand, to engage and connect. A ping-pong table altered with a mirror for a game of one-on-one by Trong Gia Nguyen, a gravity-defying black rectangle modeled on the alien monolith in Stanley Kubrick's&nbsp;2001: A Space Odyssey&nbsp;by Josh Azzarella, and Charles Matton's hologram figure projected in a miniature library are at once playful and prescient critiques of how and where we search for knowledge and meaning. Anthony Adcock's steel&nbsp;Column&nbsp;is actually oil paint on wood; Addie Wagenknecht's flower vase is crafted from 3D printed Liberator guns; and Paolo Ventura's detailed photographs of scale models suggest that nothing is as it seems. Alejandro Almanza Pereda's dynamic video reimagines a Caravaggio still life under water, where fruit, glasses, and flatware rise and fall, defying a fixed arrangement.Collapsing the immediate distance between what is seen and what is known, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s&nbsp;Zero Noon&nbsp;is a clock that runs on internet-refreshed statistics, conflating time and data into a screen-based experience of consumption. Drawing on hundreds of sources, the clock tells the local time based on various metrics, such as the average number of daily human breaths, the number of firearms produced in the U.S. per day, the number of cups of tea drunk in the UK, etc. Each day at noon, the clock resets, and the numbers all revert to zero, ever so briefly suspending the exponential onslaught of these indices of activity worldwide.&nbsp;The new exhibition highlights the global contemporary environment available in 21c Chicago’s expansive and art-filled event spaces. The unique spaces offer an opportunity to gather creatively, with the capacity to host gatherings from 10 to 300. Named a Gold Medal Winner in the Best Boutique Hotel and Best Décor categories of Northstar Meetings Group’s annual awards, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago encourages curiosity and collaboration for all events.&nbsp; About the ArtistRafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival, and animatronics, his light and shadow works are "antimonuments for alien agency". He was the first artist to represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition at Palazzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at Biennials in Cuenca, Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Melbourne NGV, Moscow, New Orleans, New York ICP, Seoul, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Wuzhen.&nbsp;Collections holding his work include MoMA and Guggenheim in New York, TATE in London, MAC and MBAM in Montreal, Jumex, and MUAC in Mexico City, DAROS in Zurich, MONA in Hobart, 21C Museum in Kanazawa, Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, CIFO in Miami, MAG in Manchester, SFMOMA in San Francisco, ZKM in Karlsruhe, SAM in Singapore and many others. About 21c Museum Hotels21c Museum is a multi-venue museum located in seven cities. One of the largest contemporary art museums in the U.S., and North America’s only collecting museum dedicated solely to art of the 21st century, each property features exhibition space open free of charge to the public, combined with a boutique hotel and restaurant. It was founded in 2006 by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson; philanthropists, preservationists, and collectors, committed to expanding access to contemporary art as a means of catalyzing revitalization and civic connection. 21c presents a range of arts programming curated by Museum Director, Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites, including both solo and group exhibitions that reflect the global nature of art today, as well as site-specific, commissioned installations, and a variety of cultural events. The organization collaborates on arts initiatives with artists and organizations worldwide, including Speed Art Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Artadia, Creative Time, For Freedoms, and others. About 21c Museum Hotel Chicago&nbsp;Located steps from the famous Magnificent Mile shopping district in River North, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago offers an art-filled escape in the heart of the city. The 297-room hotel, with 106 suites, boasts extraordinary contemporary art with a multi-venue museum that provides curated exhibitions and cultural programming for both visitors and the local community. For a perfect night out in River North, the hotel’s signature restaurant, Lure Fishbar, provides world-class seafood and sushi, premium steaks, burgers, craft cocktails, and more. Recently awarded the Northstar Meetings Group Gold Medal Award for the Best Boutique Hotel and Best Décor in the Midwest, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago’s art-filled event spaces offer inspiration for creative gatherings for groups ranging from 10 to 300. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.21cchicago.com/" target="_blank">https://www.21cchicago.com/</a>.&nbsp; Image: Valerie Hegarty, Still Lives with Crows, 2006

Truth or Dare: A Reality Show

<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=2520d7f3f7&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">Vernissage</a>Navy Pier Festival HallApr 9, 2026 | 10 am–12 pm&nbsp; The Women’s Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago invites you to attend this year's spectacular benefit, the Vernissage Champagne Brunch, on the opening day of <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.expochicago.com/" target="_blank">EXPO CHICAGO</a> Contemporary Art Fair at Navy Pier's Festival Hall. The MCA is proud to participate in the 13th year of EXPO CHICAGO, which presents artwork from more than 170 leading galleries from around the world. Proceeds from Vernissage raise significant funds in support of the MCA Learning department, whose programs offer compelling opportunities to explore, challenge, discuss and reflect on the MCA’s exhibitions and programs, as well as the world of contemporary art and culture.

Vernissage

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/talk-and-workshop-reimagining-the-photo-album-with-matthew-finley/" target="_blank">Talk and Workshop: Reimagining the Photo Album&nbsp;with Matthew Finley</a> Saturday, April 11, 202612- 1 pm Lecture1-2:30 pm Workshop MoCP600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL Join MoCP collection artist Matthew Finley (American, b. 1972) for a lecture and workshop exploring the creative possibilities of family and personal archives. Participants will reimagine the photo album as a space for personal or fictional storytelling, using either their own pictures or provided images to create imaginative, curated albums. This program is inspired by Finley’s series and new book&nbsp;An Impossibly Normal Life, a fictional narrative composed of sourced snapshots from around the world that reimagine his late uncle’s life and their shared experiences of coming out and belonging.&nbsp; This program will be held in the MoCP print study room. It is free but requires registration (link is forthcoming).

Talk and Workshop: Reimagining the Photo Album with Matthew Finley

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://experience.mcachicago.org/7252/7259" target="_blank">Get Tickets</a> Admission is free to Family Day attendees. Make yourself big and make yourself little, play with perspective and scale. Join us for a smaller-than-usual Family Day while the rest of the museum opens a new exhibition.Designed for children under 12 and their grown-ups, MCA Family Days invite our youngest visitors to be the museum’s artists, thinkers, and collaborators. Image: Family Day | It’s Alive!, MCA Chicago, April 12, 2025. Photo: Natasha Moustache, © MCA Chicago.

Family Day | Mini Mundo

Celebrate the opening of EXPO CHICAGO with the&nbsp;Opening Night Ticket&nbsp;on Thursday, April 9 from 5–8pm and enjoy benefits from our partners&nbsp;MCA Chicago, Frieze, Navy Pier,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Financial Times.Looking to learn more about contemporary art? You can now add a&nbsp;Guided Tour&nbsp;to your ticket purchase, led by experienced art world professionals. Limited availability—book yours today!<a style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://expochicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=feab88d1702b05fff44372e88&amp;id=6c1c0a8d91&amp;e=290863dfe3" target="_blank">BUY TICKETS</a> EXPO CHICAGO returns to historic Navy Pier on April 9–12, 2026 for its 13th edition.&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://galleries/" target="_blank">Galleries</a>&nbsp;section&nbsp;features leading international galleries, alongside an expanded partnership with the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center.&nbsp;Embodiment, curated by&nbsp;Dr. Louise Bernard, Director of the&nbsp;Obama Presidential Center Museum,&nbsp;will be inspired by the architecture and commissioned artists of the Obama Presidential Center ahead of its anticipated opening in 2026.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://focus/" target="_blank">Focus</a>&nbsp;highlights emerging galleries and artistic practices, featuring galleries 12 years old or younger.&nbsp;Katie A. Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the&nbsp;Detroit Institute of Arts&nbsp;and past participant of the Curatorial Forum, will curate&nbsp;Focus&nbsp;in 2026. Titled&nbsp;Gathering of Waters,&nbsp;Focus&nbsp;will explore landscape, migration, and adaptive practices of craft and care, connecting artists and galleries from the Mississippi River Basin with work from across the African, Latin American and Caribbean diasporas.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://profile/" target="_blank">Profile</a>&nbsp;presents solo booths and focused projects by established international galleries, curated by&nbsp;Essence Harden.&nbsp;The section builds on EXPO’s institutional relationships and acquisition pathways, highlighting rigorous making and a scholarly impulse that invites sustained engagement over time.&nbsp;EXPO CHICAGO also continues its collaboration with the&nbsp;Galleries Association of Korea (GAoK), presenting 12 leading Korean galleries within the fair. This initiative builds on the successful synergy established between Kiaf SEOUL and Frieze Seoul.&nbsp;

EXPO CHICAGO 2026

Timed with the release of the sequel to last year’s blockbuster film,&nbsp;Wicked,&nbsp;The&nbsp;Land of Oz: Beyond the Page&nbsp;takes visitors back to the original 1939 inspiration. The installation will be on view in two galleries on the Museum’s third floor. Curated by Laura Woolley, a memorabilia expert and consultant known for her appearances on&nbsp;Antiques Roadshow&nbsp;and her work at The Collector’s Lab,&nbsp;Land of Oz: Beyond the Page&nbsp;explores the imaginative artistry required to turn the classic children’s story into a beloved movie. Divided into three sections—Writing, Costume, and Production Design—the installation reveals how designers brought L. Frank Baum’s world to life. Highlights include a replica of Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers, an early draft of the script, a prototype of the iconic Flying Monkey costume, a character costume from Emerald City, and a replica of the Cowardly Lion’s Medal of Courage. Visitors will also see an original edition of the&nbsp;Wizard of Oz&nbsp;book, a historic telegram announcing the change from silver to ruby slippers, and a rare illustration of the Emerald City. Families, film lovers, and design enthusiasts alike will find something to spark their imaginations. Land of Oz: Page to Screen&nbsp;deepens the natural partnership between the Driehaus Museum and the Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation. This&nbsp;support&nbsp;cements&nbsp;the&nbsp;Museum’s&nbsp;role&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;cultural&nbsp;steward&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Richard&nbsp;H.&nbsp;Driehaus&nbsp;Collectionand&nbsp;extends&nbsp;its&nbsp;ability&nbsp;to&nbsp;tell&nbsp;new&nbsp;stories&nbsp;through&nbsp;exceptional&nbsp;design.&nbsp; According to&nbsp;Cynthia Van Osdol, the President and CEO of the Driehaus Trust Company, “From a young age, the Land of Oz presented a fantasy world for our founder, Richard Driehaus. He found great escape in the purpose and teamwork of its characters, and the Yellow Brick Road held a particularly vivid allure for him. As he expanded his art collection, he acquired texts, costumes, and production design originals from the 1939 film. These included, of course, our pair of Ruby Red Slippers, and a series of brilliant watercolors by Jack Smith Martin which were instrumental in the creation of the film. Equally influential is a spectacular pastel of the Emerald City, with its pair of concentric deco-styled white halos and the white light that radiates from its core. As a champion of late 19th and early 20th century architecture, it's easy to imagine why this piqued Richard's imagination. By sharing these treasures--some for the first time--we hope the public will be equally inspired. "

The Land of Oz: Beyond the Page

The&nbsp;Driehaus Museum&nbsp;is proud to announce&nbsp;Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade,&nbsp;an exhibition illuminating the volume and breadth of Louis C. Tiffany’s vast artistic production. From the 1890s to the 1920s, Tiffany Studios created a captivating range of decorative lighting fixtures that embraced the technological shift from oil lamps to electricity and simultaneously met the styles and tastes of nineteenth and twentieth century consumers. Drawn from the expansive collections of the Museum and the private art collection of Richard H. Driehaus (now in the Art Exhibition Lending Foundation), the exhibition explores how the artisans at Tiffany Studios used a range of materials—including bronze, enamel, pottery, and glass—to bring Tiffany’s innovative lighting designs to life. Organized by guest curator Alexandra M. Ruggiero,&nbsp;Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;will be on view at the Driehaus Museum,&nbsp;50 E. Erie Street&nbsp;through April 19, 2026.&nbsp; Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum&nbsp;Lisa M. Key&nbsp;says, “Many Chicagoans and tourists have seen Tiffany lamps in passing but have not had a chance to encounter them in depth or within a richly contextualized narrative. This is a chance to draw people back to the Driehaus Museum by inviting them to see familiar works in new ways. It is an opportunity for the Museum to highlight a core strength and position as a national leader in the complex storytelling of the Gilded Age and the interpretation of design and decorative arts from this time period. In this case, the exhibition will explore the broader context—from design processes, to materials, labor, and the influence of designers like Clara Driscoll—to reframe the narrative around Tiffany Studios.“ Building on past exhibitions such as&nbsp;Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany&nbsp;(2019-2020) and&nbsp;Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection&nbsp;(2015),&nbsp;Tiffany: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;expands the narrative of Tiffany lamps beyond their iconic glass shades. Guest curator Alexandra Ruggiero&nbsp;says, “I am thrilled to partner with Driehaus Museum and present the&nbsp;extraordinary range of&nbsp;Louis C. Tiffany’s&nbsp;lighting fixtures&nbsp;with a new perspective. The exhibition features objects that exemplify Tiffany’s remarkable ability to marry innovation and outstanding design, enabling museum visitors a chance to marvel at the materiality and incredible artistry of Tiffany lamps.&nbsp; In addition to presenting a range of lamp types and designs, the exhibition will include a selection of decorative objects produced by Tiffany Studios, such as&nbsp;Favrile&nbsp;glass and pottery vases, enamel and bronze boxes, and a leaded-glass fire screen. The exhibition also includes noteworthy works never before exhibited at the Driehaus Museum, including a table lamp with an enameled base and a monumental bronze and Favrile glass chandelier. Within the setting of the Driehaus Museum, the exhibition contextualizes&nbsp;the significant output of Tiffany Studios and provides visitors with a look at the innovation, design, materiality, and business of Tiffany lamps. Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;deepens the natural partnership between the Driehaus Museum and the Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation. By bringing together works from the Museum’s permanent collection and the Foundation holdings, the Museum can offer a broader, richer, and more nuanced presentation of Tiffany’s legacy—one that exemplifies Richard Driehaus’s belief in the power of beauty to inspire. This support deepens the Museum’s role as a cultural steward of the Richard H. Driehaus collection and extends its ability to tell new stories through exceptional design. ABOUT THE CURATORAlexandra M. Ruggiero is a decorative arts curator specializing in glass and a Consulting Curator at The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York. Ruggiero enjoyed a decade of curatorial experience at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), where she worked on projects and research that spanned the history of glass. From 2019 to 2022, she was Curator of Modern Glass with responsibility for acquisitions, exhibitions, cataloging, and research of the CMoG’s glass collections from 1825–1945. In 2023, she was the Interim Department Head, Curator of Collections &amp; Exhibitions at The Rockwell Museum—A Smithsonian Affiliate in Corning, NY. Ruggiero earned a master’s in the History of Decorative Arts through the Corcoran College of Art + Design and Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators. ABOUT THE DRIEHAUS MUSEUMThe Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored 1883 Nickerson Mansion, and the 1926 Murphy Auditorium. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org/" target="_blank">driehausmuseum.org</a>&nbsp;and connect with the Museum on&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Driehaus-Museum/362867207176025" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, TikTok,&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/lecture-in-photography-carla-williams/" target="_blank">Lecture in Photography: Carla Williams</a>Wednesday, May 6, 20266:00-7:30 pm Ferguson Lecture Hall600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL&nbsp; Carla Williams (American, b. 1965) is a photographer and curator known for her explorations of identity, race, gender, and representation. In her early work in the 1980s, she used a large-format camera to explore her own image, in work that reflected the lack of visibility of Black women in photographic history. Williams is the co-author of&nbsp;The Black Female Body: A Photographic History&nbsp;(2002) with Deborah Willis. She served as a curator of photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and was a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Lecture in Photography: Carla Williams

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://experience.mcachicago.org/7252/7260" target="_blank">Get Tickets</a> Admission is free to Family Day attendees. Celebrate the movements of our bodies. Designed for children under 12 and their grown-ups, MCA Family Days invite our youngest visitors to be the museum’s artists, thinkers, and collaborators. Image: Family Day | Playoffs, MCA Chicago, May 10, 2025. Photo: Natasha Moustache, © MCA Chicago.

Family Day | Let Loose

Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago (MoCP) announces its next exhibition,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mocp.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9e4250b7536dc23e9352b28ee&amp;id=1157c0cf86&amp;e=58cea278c7" target="_blank">MoCP at Fifty: Collecting Through the Decades</a>, on view January 22-May 16, 2026. As we enter the new year, MoCP celebrates its 50th anniversary. Since opening in 1976 and initiating collecting in 1979, MoCP has acquired over 18,000 objects by more than 2,000 artists, representing a broad scope of aesthetics, technologies, and processes. The variety of artworks collected has allowed the museum to engage in conversations across political, social, and cultural landscapes. To celebrate this milestone,&nbsp;MoCP at Fifty&nbsp;examines the evolving practice of building a dynamic collection, presenting a range of objects, from the rarely exhibited to newly acquired works. Together, these selections question and reflect on the role cultural institutions play in shaping the photographic canon. Each of the museum’s five galleries represents a decade of collecting, beginning with the most recent acquisitions (2016-2026) in the first gallery, then moving backwards through time. “Over five decades, the MoCP has built a collection that traces shifting cultural, political, and visual histories. This moment allows us to look back with reflection and celebrate our holdings, knowing that every photograph we steward becomes part of a larger conversation about how images shape our understanding of the world.” Karen Irvine, Chief Curator and Deputy Director Looking at MoCP’s collection decade by decade is as much an archive of history as it is of art. Collections are fluid, often evolving in ways that mirror the values and trends of society at large. The first decades are noticeably missing many women and artists of color, not because such artists were not making work at the time, but because cultural institutions had yet to fully consider the value of varied perspectives and forms of practice. The later decades were collected with intention, not only of addressing gaps in representation, but to embrace conceptual works and works that push the boundary of what defines “photography,” in the process expanding, innovating, and redefining what a photography museum can offer the public. This exhibition displays over 100 objects from the MoCP collection. Featured artists include: Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Barbara Crane (American, 1928–2019), Matthew Finley (American, b. 1972), Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953), Yasuhiro Ishimoto (Japanese American, 1921-2012), Dayanita Singh (Indian, b.1961), Bob Thall (American, b. 1948), Carlotta Corpron (American, 1901-1988), and various others. Uta Barth, Field #3, 1995; printed 2021. 2021:244

MoCP at 50: Collecting Through the Decades

Uncertain HistoriesJune 14, 2025 - May 24, 2026Chicago Cultural Center, Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Hall Cases, 2nd Floor North Everything in history, once it has happened, looks as if it had to happen exactly that way. We can’t imagine any other. But I am convinced of the uncertainty of history, of the possibility of surprise, of the importance of human action in changing what looks unchangeable.—Howard Zinn (US Army veteran), 1994* The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Hall was built as a memorial to the sacrifices of Union Civil War veterans and their families. According to the renowned American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, their sacrifices were for freedom and a testament to the most profound declaration of human rights in history. Yet, Douglass also argued in a 1877 speech to the GAR, that the task of fully realizing this freedom remained unfinished. In the face of this unfinished task, and the current challenges to freedoms,&nbsp;Uncertain Histories&nbsp;reveals entanglement between past military actions and today’s state repression, between historic declarations and the current struggle for freedom. The creative practices of contemporary veteran artists&nbsp;Darrell W. Fair,&nbsp;Eric J. Garcia,&nbsp;Monty Little (Diné), and&nbsp;Amber Zora&nbsp;draw throughlines that complicate legacies of colonialism and militarism while seeking a more peaceful future. These creative acts of hope transform violent histories into stories of survival and resistance. As celebrated historian and World War II veteran Howard Zinn writes, “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.”* Uncertain Histories&nbsp;is curated by Aaron Hughes in affiliation with the emerging Veteran Art Movement, with support from the DEMIL Art Fund, DCASE, and the City of Chicago.* Howard Zinn,&nbsp;You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times&nbsp;(Beacon Press, 1994).

Uncertain Histories

Sculptor Angie Seykora repurposes fibers, vinyl, beads, plastics, wire, and found objects to create site-specific installations and sculptures. "These types of materials combined with intuitive approaches and responses to making result in non-representative works that incite the visual and tactile senses." Our gallery space will be activated by these large, compelling sculptures that are refined through this exploration of material.&nbsp;

Geometries In Light

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce the Chicago presentation of&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=01546b90d5&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">Firelei Báez</a>, the first North American survey exhibition of the artist (b.1980, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; lives in New York) running from November 15, 2025, to May 31, 2026. Spanning two decades of Báez’s spirited practice, this landmark exhibition showcases her vibrant and captivating paintings and installations. Through a bold visual language that blends folklore, fantasy, mythology and science fiction, Báez constructs layered worlds that challenge dominant historical narratives and unsettle the often-fixed categories of race, gender and nationality. In this exhibition, Báez also emphasizes resilience and creative agency, especially among marginalized communities who have always found ways to create refuge and power in defiance of systems of repression.Known for her richly pigmented, multidisciplinary approach, Báez combines saturated colors, intricate patterns and expressive figuration with abstract gestures, architectural plans, colonial-era maps and culturally resonant symbols. Her work draws deeply from Afro-Caribbean traditions and acts as a cultural and historical crossroads for the enduring legacies of colonialism across the Americas, the African Diaspora and the cultural nexus of the Caribbean. This major exhibition reaffirms Báez’s place as one of the most compelling and visionary artists of her generation.In addition to her dynamic paintings, the exhibition will feature one of her more immersive pieces,&nbsp;A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways)&nbsp;(2019), which will occupy an entire gallery at the MCA. This large-scale work consists of paintings, mesh, papier-mâché, cutout tarp and plants that, together, transport visitors into one of Báez’s created worlds. Chicago is also highlighted in the exhibition:&nbsp;The trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other’s breathing)&nbsp;(2019) features a ciguapa (a feminine, trickster creature from Dominican folklore) bending over an architectural plan of the Illinois Central Railroad, uniting both sides of the tracks, which run between New Orleans and Chicago, to restore the divisions left by colonial trade.Firelei Báez&nbsp;is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and curated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director and Director of Curatorial Programs, Vancouver Art Gallery (former Barbara Lee Chief Curator, ICA/Boston), with Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator, ICA/Boston. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presentation is organized by Carla Acevedo-Yates, former Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator and Director of Curatorial Initiatives, with Cecilia González Godino, former Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow, and Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate. ABOUT THE ARTISTFirelei Báez (b. 1980, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; lives in New York)&nbsp;was born to a Dominican mother and a father of Haitian descent. Her upbringing between Hispaniola’s two countries, which have a longstanding history of tension predicated on ethnic difference, informs her concerns with the politics of place and heritage. She currently lives and works in New York City.Báez received an M.F.A. from Hunter College, a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union’s School of Art, and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She is the subject of her first major US survey, which originated at the ICA/Boston, curated by Eva Respini, and is now traveling. Her work has been presented in many significant international exhibitions, including the inaugural installation of the ICA Watershed, Boston (2021), curated by Eva Respini, which traveled to The Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas; and The Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), curated by Cecilia Alemani. Recent solo presentations of Báez’s work include exhibitions at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Pérez Art Museum Miami. The artist has recently participated in a number of group exhibitions at major institutions, such as the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Cleveland Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Baltimore Museum of Art; and Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. She is the recipient of many awards, most recently the Cooper Union President’s Citation (2022), Artes Mundi Prize (2021), and Philip Guston Rome Prize (2021). Báez’s work is held in many significant private and public collections; the latter include the Baltimore Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Dallas Museum of Art; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; The Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo; Pérez Art Museum Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda,Angola; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Tate, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. SUPPORTMajor support for&nbsp;Firelei Báez&nbsp;is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.This project is supported in part by Karen and Brian Conway, David and Jocelyne DeNunzio, Mathieu O. Gaulin, The Kotzubei-Beckmann Family Philanthropic Fund, Lise and Jeffrey Wilks, and an anonymous donor.Lead support for&nbsp;Firelei Báez&nbsp;at MCA Chicago is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, and R. H. Defares.Major support is provided by Laura and Tony Davis and Linden Capital Partners, Newcity, Robin Loewenberg Tebbe and Mark Tebbe, and Charlotte R. Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of Wagner Foundation.Generous support is provided by Nickol and Darrel Hackett, Hauser &amp; Wirth, the Margot and W. George Greig Ascendant Artist Fund.This exhibition is supported by the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, a philanthropic commitment to further equity across gender lines and promote the work and ideas of women artists ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGOThe Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The MCA interweaves exhibitions, performances, collections, and educational programs while providing a place for audiences to contemplate and discuss contemporary art in pursuit of a creative and diverse future. The MCA believes in the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) as a platform to enact structural change. The museum is generously supported by its Board of Trustees; individual and corporate members; private and corporate foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and government agencies. The MCA is a proud member of Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=91a06bd7c9&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">The MCA is located at 220 E. Chicago Avenue</a>&nbsp;and is open 10 am to 5 pm Wednesday to Sunday and Tuesdays from 10 am to 9 pm. Tuesday evenings (5-9 pm) are free for Illinois residents. The museum is closed on Mondays.&nbsp;Admission is free for all youth 18 and under, members of the military and veterans, and MCA members. Free admission for anyone 18 and under is generously provided by Liz and Eric Lefkofsky, and Northern Trust. Find more information about MCA's exhibitions, programs, and special events at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=0649146eaa&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">mcachicago.org</a>&nbsp;or at 312.280.2660.

Chicago Presentation of Firelei Báez

This exhibition marks the first time Matisse’s&nbsp;Jazzwill be shown in its entirety since the Art Institute acquired it in 1948. One of the most important artist books of the 20th century,&nbsp;Jazz&nbsp;joins more than 50 works from the museum’s renowned collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, illustrated books, and textiles to showcase Matisse’s commitment to continual innovation and the expressive power of color and line.

Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythms in Color

Celebrating a remarkable fifty-year period of artistic invention, this exhibition largely comprises drawings never before seen outside of Dunham’s own studio and highlights a more holistic look at his career. This show will strengthen our understanding of Dunham’s explorations of figuration to abstraction and everything in between.

Calendar

Chicago Gallery News