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

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=97ccbc71af&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera</a>, a community-informed exhibition running from August 2, 2025, to July 5, 2026, in the MCA’s stairwell galleries. For this exhibition, the MCA invited artist and educator Pablo Helguera to draw a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection, inspired by conversations with Chicago artists, writers, activists, and educators.&nbsp;In the fall of 2024, the MCA invited twenty individuals with different backgrounds and life experiences to meet and discuss the role of art in moments of uncertainty and possibility. This exhibition, which is curated by Helguera and representatives from the MCA’s curatorial and learning teams in response to the group’s discussions, will be organized by theme throughout the three floors of the MCA’s stairwell galleries, confronting trauma, resistance, complicity, and the power of individuals and movements during times of uncertainty. Each floor of the exhibition will be accompanied by the voices of individuals whose unique perspectives from the conversations informed the selection of works. With this exhibition, the MCA experiments with a new mode of presenting its permanent collection—in conversation with the people it is meant to serve.Chicago participants include Olivia Gude, Tempestt Hazel, Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Ankit Khadgi, Maira Khwaja, S. Y. Lim, Stephanie Manriquez, Magdalena Moskalewicz, Nissa Rhee, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Mérida M. Rúa, Pia Singh, Carlos Salazar-Lermont, Sufyan Sohel, and several others who wish to remain anonymous.Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera&nbsp;is organized by guest curator Pablo Helguera with Miguel Aguilar, Manager of Learning, School Partnerships and Curriculum, and Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate. ABOUT THE CURATORPablo Helguera (b. 1971, Mexico City, lives in New York)&nbsp;is an artist working in installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance. Helguera’s work focuses on a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory, and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances, and written fiction. His project,&nbsp;The School of Panamerican Unrest, is one of the most extensive socially engaged public art initiatives on record. Helguera has exhibited at major institutions worldwide and received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has held key roles in museum education, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Guggenheim Museum. Currently, he teaches at The New School and writes the weekly column&nbsp;Beautiful Eccentrics. He is the author of&nbsp;Education for Socially Engaged Art&nbsp;(2011) and&nbsp;The Parable Conference(2014).SUPPORTLead support is provided by the Pritzker Traubert Collection Exhibition Fund, Cari and Michael Sacks, and the Zell Family Foundation. 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=5d2c89b640&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=e89923038a&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">mcachicago.org</a>&nbsp;or at 312.280.2660. Howardena Pindell,&nbsp;Free, White and 21,1980. Single-channel video (color, sound). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; gift of Garth Greenan and Bryan Davidson Blue, 2014.22. © 1980 Howardena Pindell. Image courtesy Garth Greenan Gallery.

Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera

Renowned multimedia artist Dieter Roth’s preferred form, and the one he spent his lifetime pursuing, was the&nbsp;Gesamtkunstwerk, a German term for “total work of art.” Working across a diverse range of media, disciplines, and creative activities, Roth developed an artistic practice that dissolved the boundaries between art and life, upending traditional categories, hierarchies, and even timeworn notions of singular authorship. Often collaborating with other artists, including his son Björn, Roth produced an ever-expanding body of work that gestured toward the cumulative effects of a life spent making and remaking.&nbsp;The sculpture&nbsp;Balabild 5&nbsp;(c. 1975–2005), made in collaboration with Björn Roth, is a complex portrait of their shared creative life, expressed through an array of artifacts that passed through their family art studio in Iceland. Made of materials including wooden flooring from the original studio, canvas, paint and paint tubes, brushes, lightbulbs, photographs, and other found items,&nbsp;Balabild 5&nbsp;was developed over decades and is intended to look forever unfinished, as if the artists have frozen the energy of their studio and could step in at any moment to keep working. Björn Roth has called their studio “a laboratory, to search for beauty in nothing.”&nbsp;Dieter Roth and Björn Roth: Balabild 5&nbsp;is curated by Jason Foumberg, Daskalopoulos Collection Manager.

Dieter Roth and Björn Roth: Balabild 5

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 Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age, and the Murphy Auditorium, built in 1926. 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>,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/DriehausMuseum" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. ABOUT THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA&nbsp;&nbsp;Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the world’s great orchestras. In April 2024, Klaus Mäkelä was named the Orchestra’s 11th music director, and&nbsp;he&nbsp;will begin an initial five-year tenure as Zell Music Director with the 2027/28 Season. Riccardo Muti, the Orchestra’s&nbsp;distinguished 10th music director from 2010 until 2023,&nbsp;became Music Director Emeritus for Life at the beginning of the&nbsp;2023/24 Season. Daniil Trifonov is the CSO Artist-in-Residence for the 2024/25 Season. The CSO commands a vast repertoire, from baroque through contemporary music. Its renowned musicians perform more than 150 concerts annually, in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center in downtown Chicago and each summer at the Ravinia Festival in suburban Highland Park. The ensemble regularly tours nationally, and since 1892, has made 64 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.&nbsp;&nbsp; Patrons around the globe enjoy weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings via the WFMT Radio Network and online at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/experience/csoradio/" target="_blank">cso.org/radio</a>. Launched in 2007,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/experience/curation/cso-resound/" target="_blank">CSO Resound</a>&nbsp;is the ensemble’s Grammy Award–winning independent record label, featuring live performances with world-class conductors and guest artists. Since 1916, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have amassed an extensive discography that has earned 65 Grammy awards from the Recording Academy.&nbsp; The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), which also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Symphony Center Presents, and the Negaunee Music Institute. The&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/about/chicago-symphony-chorus/" target="_blank">Chicago Symphony Chorus</a>, founded by Margaret Hillis in 1957, is the country’s largest professional chorus. Founded by second music director Frederick Stock during the 1919/20 Season, the&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/education-community/musician-training/civic-orchestra-of-chicago/" target="_blank">Civic Orchestra of Chicago</a>&nbsp;is a training ensemble for emerging professionals with Ken-David Masur serving as its principal conductor.&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/about/scp/" target="_blank">Symphony Center Presents</a>features guest artists and ensembles across an expansive array of genres, including classical, jazz, world and contemporary. The&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/education-community/negaunee-music-institute/" target="_blank">Negaunee Music Institute</a>&nbsp;offers community and educational programs that annually engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds throughout the Chicagoland area.&nbsp; Through the Institute and numerous other activities — including annual free community concerts in Chicago neighborhoods — the CSO is committed to using the power of music to strengthen bonds with its longtime patrons and create connections with new audiences.&nbsp; The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is supported by thousands of patrons, volunteers and institutional and individual donors. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute.&nbsp;For more information, visit<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.cso.org/" target="_blank">&nbsp;cso.org</a>.

CSO Chamber Music: Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature

Exquisite Canvas&nbsp;is a living exhibition of public art presented at the Chicago Cultural Center. The Michigan Avenue Gallery walls will become an expansive and awe-inspiring canvas for ten weeks, meticulously painted with narratives of hope, resilience, and the brilliant spirit that defines Chicago. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a dynamic display of the creativity that covers buildings and viaducts throughout the city. This exhibition offers a window into the creative process of public art by inviting visitors to watch three Chicago artists,&nbsp;Andy Bellomo,&nbsp;Stephanie ‘Stef Skills’ Garland, and Gabriel Villa, develop original murals throughout the exhibition. By witnessing the creative processes in action, visitors can appreciate the creativity, dedication, and work that goes into each mural and public artwork. Through observation of and engagement with the artists as they paint, visitors are active participants in the creation of the artistic work.The murals developed for&nbsp;Exquisite Canvas&nbsp;are a testament to the interplay between tradition and innovation of modern-day muralists and showcase the dynamic creative legacy of Chicago street artists. These vibrant compositions celebrate the diverse voices and narratives that shape our urban landscape, forging a meaningful connection between art and the residents of Chicago.

Exquisite Canvas: Mural Takeover by Andy Bellomo, Stephanie ‘Stef Skills’ Garland, and Gabriel Villa

Blondell Cummings: Dance as Moving Pictures is a comprehensive survey of the late visionary choreographer and multimedia artist. Blondell Cummings: Dance as Moving Pictures celebrates the life and legacy of groundbreaking choreographer and video artist Blondell Cummings (1944–2015). Renowned for her fusion of dance, visual art, and everyday gestures, Cummings brought modern dance into kitchens, hallways, and living rooms — placing Black domestic life and memory at the center of avant-garde performance. &nbsp; This multimedia exhibition also includes video excerpts of her iconic works like Chicken Soup (1981), archival photographs, interviews, and installations that reflect her ability to capture the poetry of daily life and reframe movement as both art and storytelling. The exhibition was originally organized by Art + Practice and the Getty Research Institute. You can view the exhibit now until July 27, 2025.&nbsp;

Blondell Cummings: Dance as Moving Pictures

Tom Torluemke’s (b. Chicago, 1959) name is familiar to art lovers in Chicagoland thanks mainly to his detailed acrylic paintings, in which he observes and memorializes society’s ills with the doting attention of a diehard humanist. Torluemke has been considerably more prolific in painting works on paper, a primarily unexplored part of his oeuvre:&nbsp;Tom Torluemke: Live! On Paper, 1987 – 2024, aspires to reframe the conversation around his art, representing almost forty years of studio activity that includes works about nature, fantasy, autobiography, abstraction, social strife, identity, and a full spectrum of emotion from shame to ecstasy, showcasing Torluemke’s unique artistry through his freewheeling imagination and boundless technical chops in capturing our broad collective experience of being fully aware, conscious citizens living in this place at this peculiar moment in history. – Dan Cameron, CuratorA monograph and exhibition catalog for Tom Torluemke: Live! On Paper has been published by SKIRA Editore, Milan, and edited by Dan Cameron, with essays by Dan Cameron, Jeff Huebner, Robin Dluzen, Alan Pocaro, and David Detmer.Tom Torluemke&nbsp;is a contemporary artist whose practice spans 40+ years and includes works in painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, and various mediums. Tom is known for his powerful, no-holds-barred approach to subject matter relating to socio-political, ethical, and humanistic themes. With over 150 solo and group exhibitions and 30 public art commissions throughout the Midwest, his work testifies to the relevance and scope of his ideas and his ability to present them in a meaningful context within their communities.

Tom Torluemke: LIVE! ON PAPER, 1987 - 2024

As a part of the Elevate series at 21c Chicago, Tom Burtonwood presents Recurring, three elements of his ongoing project “A Cube is a Rectangle.” Gallery 3 features a large gridded wall installation of over 200 of Burtonwood’s signature “Würfel” drawings. Adjacent to the gallery two large “Würfels” crafted from mixed media materials including hydrocal, paint, soil, and natural fibers hang side by side. Accompanying these two-dimensional works is a new single-channel stop-frame animation of his unfolding cube motif. Burtonwood’s series “A Cube is a Rectangle” reflects on the idea that true repetition is not mechanical or identical, but that it can be ”productive”—it creates something new each time. This contrasts with what Gilles Deleuze calls "generality," where repetition is based on sameness, predictability, and equivalence (like in a clock ticking or mass production). In contrast, “real” repetition occurs on a deeper, ontological level: it is singular, evental, and tied to difference.

Tom Burtonwood: Recurring

In celebration of the landmark exhibition,&nbsp;Huguette Caland: Bribes de corps, The Arts Club of Chicago collaborates with MAKE Literary Productions to co-curate an evening of readings on the theme “Body Bits,” a loose translation of the exhibition’s title. Text-oriented artists in a variety of genres will perform alongside Caland’s evocative body of work with their own ruminations on bits, bumps, lumps, and the occasional humps here and there. Free and open to all. Register&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://artsclubchicago.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=502da7c1672081e981f967563&amp;id=5324a49e08&amp;e=e3c33543d7" target="_blank">here</a>.

Body Bits: poetry, prose and performance in the gallery

Huguette Caland:&nbsp;Bribes de corps&nbsp;presents painted works by the Lebanese artist whose life and career traversed decades, continents, and media, defying both aesthetic and social conventions of her time and place. Bringing together a significant corpus of works that have rarely been seen together, the exhibition focuses on the body of work that Caland produced while living in Paris in the 1970s, the&nbsp;Bribes de corps&nbsp;[“Body Bits”] and constitutes the largest presentation of the series to date.Caland’s own body and her preoccupations with its size and its pleasures motivated much of her work throughout this period, and this exhibition introduces the languages—sometimes joyful and sometimes pain-ridden—she cultivated in shape and color to speak of her experience alongside those of other bodies. The artist also played with what Western art history categorizes as the diametrically opposed poles of abstraction and figuration, rendering the distinction between color and line indiscernible, subject positions and parts indecipherable, and making normative or binaristic gendering unimaginable even as the body parts she painted often transform into landscapes or blend into the haze of color fields.The work is contextualized in relationship to debates about gender and sexual norms in both France and Lebanon during the time. It concludes with a more recent painting from the artist’s late series of tapestry-like paintings, which bring her interest in the body and its surroundings to full force through a painterly idiom that borrows from the techniques and cultures of&nbsp;tatreez, or Palestinian embroidery. The exhibition also includes a selection of three embroidered dresses, which Caland designed and wore, and which consolidate the relationship between art and flesh in her practice. The exhibition is made possible by the Smart Family Foundation through a grant to the Ambition Fund of The Arts Club of Chicago.This exhibition is curated&nbsp;by Hannah Feldman,&nbsp;Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Associate Professor of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. During the run of the exhibition, The Arts Club will host two public programs in the gallery: Thursday June 5Evening Public Program: Visual ArtJanine Mileaf gives an Exhibition Tour of&nbsp;Huguette Caland: Bribes de corpsProgram 6:00 pm 20th-century painter Huguette Caland (1931–2019), whose paintings made in Paris in the 1970s are now on view in the gallery at The Arts Club of Chicago, is also the current subject of a grand-scale retrospective at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. Join Arts Club Executive Director and art historian Janine Mileaf for a guided tour of the exhibition at The Arts Club.&nbsp; Free and Open to All. Limited Capacity. Register&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://artsclubchicago.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=502da7c1672081e981f967563&amp;id=465efb6f8d&amp;e=e3c33543d7" target="_blank">here</a>. Thursday July 31Evening Public ProgramBody Bits: poetry, prose and performance in the galleryProgram 6:00 pm In celebration of the landmark exhibition,&nbsp;Huguette Caland: Bribes de corps, The Arts Club of Chicago collaborates with MAKE Literary Productions to co-curate an evening of readings on the theme “Body Bits,” a loose translation of the exhibition’s title. Text-oriented artists in a variety of genres will perform alongside Caland’s evocative body of work with their own ruminations on bits, bumps, lumps, and the occasional humps here and there. Free and open to all. Register&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://artsclubchicago.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=502da7c1672081e981f967563&amp;id=5324a49e08&amp;e=e3c33543d7" target="_blank">here</a>. Image: Self Portrait (Bribes de corps), 1973, oil on linen. Courtesy Huguette Caland Estate

Huguette Caland Bribes de Corps

Please join us in a viewing and conversation around works in the MoCP permanent collection on&nbsp;the topic of autonomous power in photography. Works presented include photographic practices of Black, Indigenous,&nbsp;and queer artists to expand topics presented in the exhibition, Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography&nbsp;In Dialogue with the MoCP Collection. This discussion will be led by MoCP Curatorial and Education Assistant, Kyli Hawks.*This program will be held in the MoCP print study room.&nbsp;

Photos at Noon: Autonomous Power in Photography

Guest curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler, along with Kristin Taylor, MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and CollectionsThis exhibition will feature works in the MoCP permanent collection that are included in the recent and groundbreaking publication titled&nbsp;Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography.&nbsp;The book&nbsp;was created by a group of artists, art historians, activists, and scholars—Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Leigh Raiford, and Laura Wexler—and published by Thames and Hudson in 2024. It is an extension of a project that these five authors have collaborated on for over ten years, in which they reassess a range of photographs and projects that portray stories of humanity and social movements to decenter the photographer as the only author of the image, and to emphasize the act of photographing as an inherently collaborative process in which many parties are involved. By sharing both artists’ statements and excerpts from interviews with people depicted in photographs, they question whether memories align: Did both sides remember the moment in the same way? How did the photographed feel about the photograph’s life after it circulated through art markets, print media, and online? And what role might the photograph have played in perpetuating harmful or liberatory narratives about specific histories, places, or individuals?The works—both historical and contemporary—are presented in clusters focused on topics,&nbsp;to highlight and propose questions about photographed moments of coercion, friendship, exploitation, community, and violence.&nbsp;The exhibition will also feature a reflection space for the audience engagement, as part of the project’s ongoing effort to consider the history of photography as a living and evolving entity that is unfixed and expanding as we learn more about the people, communities, and histories that images depict.MoCP is supported by Columbia College Chicago, MoCP Advisory Board, Museum Council, individuals, private and corporate foundations, and government grants.The 2024–2025 exhibition season is sponsored in part by the Efroymson Family Fund, Henry Nias Foundation, The Rowan Foundation, Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Comer Family Foundation, and Venable Foundation. It is partially supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and 21c Museum Hotel, Chicago. MoCP acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.This project is generously supported through the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Impact Fund for Photography and the Westridge Foundation.&nbsp;

Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography in Dialogue with the MoCP Collection

The&nbsp;Driehaus Museum&nbsp;is proud to announce&nbsp;Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, an exhibition exploring the trailblazing career and legacy of Scottish artist Rory McEwen, whose work is considered one of the major turning points in the development of contemporary botanical art. Presenting over one hundred works, including sculpture and manuscripts, the exhibition reveals how McEwen forged his own personal interpretation of 20th century modernism, portraying flowers, leaves, and vegetables as individual subjects worthy of their own portraits. Establishing McEwen’s role in shaping new generations of artists, the exhibition also features the work of contemporary botanical artists who&nbsp;continue to&nbsp;shape&nbsp;McEwen’s&nbsp;artistic&nbsp;legacy today.&nbsp;Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature&nbsp;will be on view at the Driehaus Museum,&nbsp;50 E. Erie Street&nbsp;from&nbsp;May 16 to August 17, 2025.&nbsp;McEwen’s vibrant paintings balance the scientific detail of traditional botanical art with a modernist perspective influenced by other visual artists of his time. A student of the Old Masters as well as his contemporaries, McEwen developed a distinctive style over the course of his career, painting on vellum and using large empty backgrounds on which his plant portraits seem to float. In his paintings, he forged his own personal interpretation of twentieth-century modernism, portraying individual flowers, leaves, and vegetables as subject matter, “as a way of getting as close as possible to what I perceive as the truth, my truth of the time in which I live.” By encompassing a rare ability to see a plant as more than “just” a plant—to imbue his paintings with a sense of his subject’s “soul”—his techniques have had a lasting impact on botanical artists today. McEwen was a modern-day Renaissance man, whose artistry extended to sculpture, poetry, and most notably, music, where he was a successful folk revival musician and host of the popular 1960’s music show, “Hullabaloo!”“We are pleased to welcome audiences to the Museum this summer with an exhibition that invites us to approach our natural surroundings with curiosity and wonder and to feature an artist who is lesser known on these shores but who embodies the kind of excellence the Museum celebrates,” says&nbsp;Driehaus Museum Executive Director&nbsp;Lisa M. Key. She continues, “McEwen’s&nbsp;naturalistic paintings will echo the organic forms and ornamentation throughout our historic interiors.At the Driehaus Museum, we are committed to special exhibitions that bring visitors new perspectives and this exhibition hits that mark.”“The ability to give&nbsp;life and luminosity to a spectrum of emotions is what gives Rory McEwen’s art those qualities that distinguish it from the ordinary,” says&nbsp;Ruth L. A. Stiff, guest curator. “As Rory McEwen conceded to Wilfrid Blunt, his drawing master at Eton, ‘I have never really been interested in botanical illustration per se, but rather in that moment when painting starts to breathe poetry.’ “Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature&nbsp;offers viewers&nbsp;an&nbsp;unparalleled&nbsp;context&nbsp;to&nbsp;explore McEwen’s pioneering artistic vision. The exhibition presents works by McEwen alongside works by the 17th&nbsp;and 18th&nbsp;century painters whom he studied—such as Nicolas Robert, Pierre Joseph Redouté, Georg Dionysius Ehret, and Claude Aubriet—as well as early illuminated manuscripts and folio volumes drawn from the Mellon Collection, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and the RoyalBotanic&nbsp;Gardens,&nbsp;Kew.&nbsp;It includes works on loan from McEwen’s family as well as works drawn from numerous private collections, most of which have never been seen by the American public. Loans&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;extensive&nbsp;contemporary&nbsp;botanical collection of British botanist and philanthropist, Dr. Shirley Sherwood, showcase contemporary artists following in McEwen’s techniques and styles.As part of&nbsp;Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, the Driehaus Museum will partner with local institutions across exhibits and programs, including Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, Chicago Botanic Garden, the Morton Arboretum, the Old Town School of Folk Music, and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The Driehaus Museum will also be participating in the Magnificent Mile Association’s annual Tulip festival with a special presentation of tulips and a tulip sculpture in the Museum’s garden.Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature&nbsp;is&nbsp;generously supported by the&nbsp;Driehaus Trust Company, LLC., the Kovler Family Foundation, and Barbi and Tom Donnelley. Additional support provided by&nbsp;Friends of&nbsp;Rory McEwen.The exhibition is curated by Ruth L. A. Stiff, Curator of International Exhibitions, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) and accompanied by a full-color catalogue produced by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. It is presented in association with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Virginia) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with tour management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Major support is provided by the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation. The Driehaus Museum is the final U.S. institution to host the exhibition, which included the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina; the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Massachusetts; and the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida.&nbsp; ABOUT THE ARTISTRory McEwen (1932-1982) grew up in Scotland as the third of seven children at Marchmont House, the family’s Palladian stately home, where he learned to draw flowers from an early age encouraged by his French governess, who instructed him in drawing from nature. He was influenced by 17th&nbsp;and 18th-century French flower painters throughout his education at Eton, including visits to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, and his continued studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. After serving with the British Army, he discovered his passion for art. Initially a blues musician, McEwen toured the U.S. in 1956 with his brother Alexander, recording an LP for Smithsonian Folkways Records and appearing twice on the Ed Sullivan show. Back in Britain, he became known as a guitarist and singer, appearing nightly on the BBC’s&nbsp;Tonight&nbsp;show and produced, presented, and performed on the seminal music program,&nbsp;Hullabaloo. However, from 1964 until his death in 1982, McEwen focused solely on his work as a visual artist, known for his detailed work on vellum with watercolors. His posthumous 1988 exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London is considered one of the pivotal turning points in the development of contemporary botanical art, and his techniques have had a lasting impact on botanical artists today. McEwen’s&nbsp;work&nbsp;can&nbsp;be&nbsp;found&nbsp;in&nbsp;private&nbsp;and&nbsp;public&nbsp;collections&nbsp;across&nbsp;the&nbsp;globe,&nbsp;including&nbsp;the British&nbsp;Museum;&nbsp;Victoria&nbsp;and&nbsp;Albert&nbsp;Museum;&nbsp;Tate;&nbsp;National&nbsp;Gallery&nbsp;of&nbsp;Modern&nbsp;Art,&nbsp;Scotland; Fitzwilliam&nbsp;Museum,&nbsp;Cambridge;&nbsp;Hunt&nbsp;Institute,&nbsp;Pittsburgh;&nbsp;andMuseum&nbsp;of&nbsp;Modern&nbsp;Art,&nbsp;New&nbsp;York. 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 Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age, and the Murphy Auditorium, built in 1926. 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&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org/" target="_blank">driehausmuseum.org</a>&nbsp;and connect with the Museum on&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Driehaus-Museum/362867207176025" target="_blank">Facebook</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/DriehausMuseum" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago announces&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/es/exhibitions/paul-pfeiffer-prologue-to-the-story-of-the-birth-of-freedom/" target="_blank">Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom</a>, opening May 3 and on view until August 31, 2025.&nbsp;Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom&nbsp;is a survey that covers twenty-five years of work from artist Paul Pfeiffer (b. 1966, Honolulu, HI; lives in New York), whose practice interrogates ideas of spectacle, celebrity, and mass culture. The exhibition brings together works from across Pfeiffer’s career, spanning from his early photo and video works to his latest experiments in sculpture and installation.&nbsp;Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom&nbsp;focuses on the artist’s use of media manipulation to reveal audiences’ participation in both adoration and objectification. Mining imagery from our media-saturated world, Pfeiffer recontextualizes global icons such as pop stars, film actors, and athletes through careful acts of cutting, splicing, and masking. Throughout his work, Pfeiffer interrogates what it means to consume images and culture. For Pfeiffer, the basketball court, the boxing ring, and the stadium not only serve as platforms for grand spectacles but as sites where the body politic—of a nation, of a community, of society—is imagined, defined, and contested. Spanning two and a half decades of work, the exhibition features Pfeiffer’s works in the MCA Collection, including&nbsp;Fragment of a Crucifixion (After Francis Bacon)&nbsp;(1999) and&nbsp;Self-Portrait as a Fountain&nbsp;(2000), which is part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift. This exhibition is the MCA’s fourth that centrally features Pfieffer’s work, following his career-defining solo show&nbsp;Paul Pfeiffer&nbsp;in 2003,&nbsp;MCA Screen: Paul Pfeiffer&nbsp;in 2018, and&nbsp;Fragments of a Crucifixion&nbsp;in 2019.&nbsp;The accompanying catalogue for this exhibition includes an interview from&nbsp;Fragments of a Crucifixionbetween Pfeiffer and former MCA Marjorie Susan Curatorial Fellow Chanon Kenji Praepipatmangkol, and features contributions from University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Tom Gunning, artist Julie Mehretu, and historian Lawrence Chua.&nbsp; Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom&nbsp;is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and curated by Clara Kim, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Paula Kroll, Curatorial Assistant. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presentation is curated by Bana Kattan, former Pamela Alper Associate Curator, with Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate.&nbsp; ABOUT THE ARTIST Paul Pfeiffer (b. 1966, Honolulu, Hawaii)&nbsp;is an artist living and working in New York City, who has been making work in video, photography, installation, and sculpture since the late 1990s. Known for his innovative manipulation of digital media, Pfeiffer recasts the visual language of mass media spectacle to examine how images shape our awareness of ourselves and the world. Sampling footage from YouTube and other sources, he uses these to plumb the depths of contemporary culture, assessing its racial, religious, and technological dimensions. At the same time, Pfeiffer's objects and images function diachronically, establishing profound genealogies that connect contemporary culture and its many particularities to the long, seemingly remote histories of art, media, religion, and human consciousness. Pfeiffer has had many one-person exhibitions at Whitney Museum of American Art (2001); the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2003 and 2017-18); the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2005); MUSAC León, Spain (2008); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2009); Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila (2015); Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil (2018); and The Athenaeum, Athens, GA (2023). He has presented work in major international exhibitions, most recently the Performa Biennial and the Honolulu Biennial in 2019 and the Toronto Biennial and Seoul Mediacity Biennale in 2022. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; M+, Hong Kong; The Guggenheim; Tate Modern; and the Pinault Collection, among many others. Pfeiffer’s first large-scale retrospective of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2023-24) will travel to the Guggenheim Bilbao and open November 2024. SUPPORT Lead support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, and Cari and Michael Sacks. ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO The 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. Free admission for 18 and under is generously provided by Liz and Eric Lefkofsky and Northern Trust. <a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://visit.mcachicago.org/" 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 10 am to 9 pm Tuesday. Tuesday evenings (5 to 9 pm) are free to Illinois residents. The museum is closed on Mondays. Admission is free for all youth 18 and under, members of the military and veterans, and MCA members. Find more information about MCA's exhibitions, programs, and special events at&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://mcachicago.org/" target="_blank">mcachicago.org</a>&nbsp;or at 312.280.2660. Image: Paul Pfeiffer,&nbsp;Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse&nbsp;(09), 2004. Fujiflex digital C-print; 48 × 60 in. (121.9 × 152.4 cm). Collection of Alan Hergott and Curt Shepard. © Paul Pfeiffer. Courtesy of the artist; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid; Perrotin; and Thomas Dane Gallery, London.

Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s upcoming exhibition&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=38939d4a2c&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">Pipilotti Rist: Supersubjektiv</a>&nbsp;will open on February 22 and run through September 14, 2025, in the Turner Gallery on the museum’s fourth floor.This exhibition focuses on a single artwork by Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962, Grabs, Switzerland; lives in Zürich, Switzerland), the 2001 video installation&nbsp;Supersubjektiv. In the artwork, Rist takes digital surveillance footage she filmed during a month-long trip to Japan and morphs it into a dream-like space for contemplation and curiosity, pairing the hallucinatory video with an artist-made pillow and sheepskin seating. The artwork examines nature, the built environment, and technology with wide-eyed wonder. While viewing the large-scale, wall-to-wall video, visitors are encouraged to relax in the darkened gallery and listen to its ambient electronic soundtrack, made in collaboration with composer Anders Guggisberg and featuring the familiar sounds of a dial-up internet modem as well as lyrics written and sung by Rist. Made at the turn of the millennium,&nbsp;Supersubjektiv&nbsp;traces Rist’s longing for connection in an increasingly digital and globalized world.Supersubjektiv&nbsp;is part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift, which was jointly donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2022.&nbsp;Pipilotti Rist: Supersubjektiv&nbsp;is curated by Jason Foumberg, Daskalopoulos Collection Manager. ABOUT THE ARTISTPipilotti Rist (b. 1962, Grabs, Switzerland; lives in Zurich, Switzerland)&nbsp;used her childhood nickname, Lotti, with the first name of the Swedish children’s story character Pippi Longstocking to create her artistic moniker in 1982. She attended the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna from 1982 to 1986 and the Schule für Gestaltung Basel from 1986 to 1988. She produced her first video,&nbsp;I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much&nbsp;(1986), while still at school in Basel. In it, she bounces up and down, falling out of her dress, as she repeatedly sings the title line (derived from the lyrics to a Beatles song). From 1988 to 1994, she played in a rock band called Les Reines Prochaines, at the same time developing an aesthetic language quite close to that of music videos in her art. The artist appears in many of her own videos and often sings on the soundtracks; her mother, brother, and three sisters frequently assist on the production. Rist has also developed installations such as&nbsp;Flying Room(1995) and&nbsp;Himalaya’s Sister’s Living Room&nbsp;(2000), in which video cameras and monitors are wittily deployed in furnished gallery spaces.Since Rist’s first solo exhibition, in 1984, she has had shows at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany (1995), Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1996), SITE Santa Fe (1998), Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (2000), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (2001), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2004), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2007), and Museum of Modern Art in New York (2008), among other venues. Her work has also appeared in the Venice Biennale (1993, 1999, and 2005), São Paulo Biennial (1995), Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, France (1997), Berlin Biennial (1998), International Biennial Exhibition at SITE Santa Fe (1999), Sydney Biennial (2000), and International Triennial of Contemporary Art, Yokohama (2001). She was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. Rist lives and works in Zurich and in the mountains of Switzerland. SUPPORTThis exhibition is made possible by a gift from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, a collection of more than 100 artworks donated jointly to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. 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. Free admission for 18 and under is generously provided by Liz and Eric Lefkofsky and Northern Trust. <a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=bbb77a82dd&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 (free for IL residents) from 10 am to 9 pm. 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. Find more information about MCA's exhibitions, programs, and special events at&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=2c1ea65df9&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">mcachicago.org</a>&nbsp;or at 312.280.2660.

Pipilotti Rist: Supersubjektiv

Mac Pierce: Death Match

Waters of the Abyss will open June 19, 2025,&nbsp;in the Chicago Rooms of the Chicago Cultural Center. The exhibition is free and open to the public through September 21, 2025. Through more than 15 crafted works selected from a larger body of over 50, Jean-Louis invites viewers on a spiritual and historical journey that explores Black identity, ancestral heritage, and freedom. Using innovative techniques and symbolic materials — including paper, glass, crystals, shells, and 23K gold — Jean-Louis constructs portal-like sculptures, tabernacle paintings, and relic-inspired artifacts with symbolic meaning and cultural resonance. The exhibition was originally organized by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.&nbsp; Photo Credit: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Fabiola Jean-Louis

Waters of the Abyss

Impressionist artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894)—known and beloved by many Art Institute visitors for his monumental painting&nbsp;Paris Street; Rainy Day—takes center stage in this major exhibition exploring the very personal interests and relationships that shaped his world. Caillebotte was unique among his Impressionist peers. At a time when modernity was synonymous with fashionable young women and new forms of entertainment, he focused instead on a more intimate and individualized sphere: his family and friends, his fellow sportsmen, the bourgeois pedestrians strolling in his neighborhood, and the workers who came to his house or whom he observed in the street. Despite being born into the wealth built by his father, Caillebotte resisted the idleness associated with the leisured class. He was not only an active member of the Impressionist group but also participated in several activities as a high-level amateur, including rowing, gardening, and sailing. In all of his pursuits, Caillebotte gave his all, taking on the role of leader, organizer, and sometimes financier; he also captured these passions in paint, whether documenting the toil of boating, the serenity of tending a plant, or the concentration of a card game. Caillebotte was equally invested in his personal relationships, both familial and non-familial—and again these relationships, especially with the males he interacted with as son, brother, employer, colleague, and friend—are the focus of many of his artworks. One sees in multiple paintings his two brothers and other family members as well as a wide circle of friends, often depicted in Caillebotte’s own home—in a favorite chair, by a recognizable window, or on an often-portrayed sofa. Most intimately, and most unusually for the time, Caillebotte also painted nude men in the privacy of their bath.&nbsp; This exhibition, which opened at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris in October 2024, includes more than 120 works—paintings, works on paper, photographs, and other ephemera from throughout Caillebotte’s career. In addition to recognizable works like&nbsp;Floor Scrapers&nbsp;and the Art Institute’s&nbsp;Paris Street; Rainy Day,&nbsp;the show presents lesser-known but pivotal works like the Musée d’Orsay’s recent acquisition,&nbsp;Boating Party, and the Louvre Abu-Dhabi’s&nbsp;The Bezique Game, as well as many works from private collections that are rarely seen by American audiences.&nbsp; Together, these works open a new window onto Caillebotte—as a complex figure with many interests, as an Impressionist who painted like no other Impressionist, and as an artist who captured his own, very distinct Paris. Image: Gustave Caillebotte, Boating Party, about 1877–78. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Purchased thanks to the exclusive patronage of LVMH, 2022, RF MO P 2022 5. Photo courtesy of GrandPalaisRmn (Musée d’Orsay) / Sophie Crépy Read CGN's spring interview with Gloria Groom in the spring/summer 2025 magazine.

Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World

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 Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age, and the Murphy Auditorium, built in 1926. 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>,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/DriehausMuseum" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. ABOUT THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA&nbsp;&nbsp;Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the world’s great orchestras. In April 2024, Klaus Mäkelä was named the Orchestra’s 11th music director, and&nbsp;he&nbsp;will begin an initial five-year tenure as Zell Music Director with the 2027/28 Season. Riccardo Muti, the Orchestra’s&nbsp;distinguished 10th music director from 2010 until 2023,&nbsp;became Music Director Emeritus for Life at the beginning of the&nbsp;2023/24 Season. Daniil Trifonov is the CSO Artist-in-Residence for the 2024/25 Season. The CSO commands a vast repertoire, from baroque through contemporary music. Its renowned musicians perform more than 150 concerts annually, in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center in downtown Chicago and each summer at the Ravinia Festival in suburban Highland Park. The ensemble regularly tours nationally, and since 1892, has made 64 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.&nbsp;&nbsp; Patrons around the globe enjoy weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings via the WFMT Radio Network and online at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/experience/csoradio/" target="_blank">cso.org/radio</a>. Launched in 2007,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/experience/curation/cso-resound/" target="_blank">CSO Resound</a>&nbsp;is the ensemble’s Grammy Award–winning independent record label, featuring live performances with world-class conductors and guest artists. Since 1916, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have amassed an extensive discography that has earned 65 Grammy awards from the Recording Academy.&nbsp; The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), which also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Symphony Center Presents, and the Negaunee Music Institute. The&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/about/chicago-symphony-chorus/" target="_blank">Chicago Symphony Chorus</a>, founded by Margaret Hillis in 1957, is the country’s largest professional chorus. Founded by second music director Frederick Stock during the 1919/20 Season, the&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/education-community/musician-training/civic-orchestra-of-chicago/" target="_blank">Civic Orchestra of Chicago</a>&nbsp;is a training ensemble for emerging professionals with Ken-David Masur serving as its principal conductor.&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/about/scp/" target="_blank">Symphony Center Presents</a>features guest artists and ensembles across an expansive array of genres, including classical, jazz, world and contemporary. The&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cso.org/education-community/negaunee-music-institute/" target="_blank">Negaunee Music Institute</a>&nbsp;offers community and educational programs that annually engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds throughout the Chicagoland area.&nbsp; Through the Institute and numerous other activities — including annual free community concerts in Chicago neighborhoods — the CSO is committed to using the power of music to strengthen bonds with its longtime patrons and create connections with new audiences.&nbsp; The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is supported by thousands of patrons, volunteers and institutional and individual donors. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute.&nbsp;For more information, visit<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.cso.org/" target="_blank">&nbsp;cso.org</a>.

CSO Chamber Music: Tiffany: Beyond the Shade

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=18663075f4&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me</a> opens February 1 and runs through October 19, 2025.Indulge Me is a major survey of renowned artist Wafaa Bilal (b. 1966, Najaf, Iraq; lives in New York, NY). Crucially, the exhibition will take a comprehensive look at Bilal’s myriad practice, highlighting the development of his work across decades and placing it in conversation with broader art histories. It will also explore cultural cannibalism—that is, how culture (specifically the culture of the other) is used, disassembled, and consumed.Working in performance, sculpture, and with online and interactive technologies, Bilal’s interdisciplinary practice investigates the dynamic between international and interpersonal politics while highlighting the tension between the United States, which he has deemed the “comfort zone,” and the “conflict zone” of Iraq. Through methods such as using his own body to interrogate notions of power and using innovative technologies to rectify acts of cultural destruction, Bilal shows us what it means to consciously engage across cultures while highlighting negative global implications of consumption, exploitation, and profiteering.The exhibition will be organized into five immersive sections, each of which focuses on a major work from Bilal’s practice. Artworks on display include a reconstruction of a room in Chicago’s FLATFILE Gallery that the artist confined himself to for a month-long performance in Domestic Tension (2007). During this performance, Bilal invited the audience to shoot at him with a paintball gun that was operated virtually by viewers who could also interact with him via camera feed and live chat. Over the course of thirty days, a total of 60,000 shots were fired by "shooters" from 128 countries. Also included in the MCA exhibition is a large-scale, towering video displaying images from Bilal’s year-long performance 3rdi (2010–11), wherein Bilal surgically implanted a camera into the back of his head that, every minute on the minute, captured photographs. The photos included in the MCA display will correspond to the minute, hour, and day they were taken.&nbsp;Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me will also present Thumbsat Satellite (2024), which comprises a golden bust of Saddam Hussein fixed to a satellite and launched into Earth’s orbit as part of the exhibition. Developed as a critique of the former Iraqi president’s rumored desire to launch a bust of himself into space, the work will also feature a number of in-gallery components, including a model of the satellite and bust and a way for visitors to track the artwork’s location through live-captured images before it is destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere.&nbsp;Additionally, the exhibition will feature In a Grain of Wheat: Cultivating Hybrid Futures in Ancient Seed DNA, Bilal’s response to ISIS’s destruction of the Winged Bull of Nineveh sculpture, or Lamassu, in 2015. The piece involves inserting high-resolution 3D scans of the sculpture into the DNA of heirloom Iraqi wheat seeds. A commission by the MCA will see the project activated in a new, sculptural form, which will consider if it is possible for a wheat seed to transform terrorist violence into restorative agency.&nbsp;The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication, the first to survey multiple projects by the visionary artist.&nbsp;A series of exhibition-related programs will be announced closer to the opening.&nbsp;Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me is curated by Bana Kattan, Pamela Alper Associate Curator, with Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate.&nbsp;Image: Wafaa Bilal (b. 1966, Najaf, Iraq; lives in New York, NY), Rendering of Thumbsat Satellite, 2023. © Wafaa Bilal. Courtesy of the artist.

Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me

City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago&nbsp;is an intergenerational group exhibition that highlights Chicago’s essential, yet often underacknowledged, role in the story of queer art and activism. The exhibition examines this history from the mid-1980s, when activists radically mobilized in response to the US government’s disastrous handling of the AIDS crisis. In this moment of change, activists reclaimed the historically pejorative epithet “queer” as a liberatory term, encompassing all who purposefully deviate from heteronormative society. Drawn from the MCA’s collection and other local collections,&nbsp;City in a Garden&nbsp;follows this paradigm shift in LGBTQ+ history by bringing together work from over 30 artists and collectives working in Chicago from the 1980s to the present.These artists address queerness through diverse media and methods: documenting clandestine queer spaces in photographs, creating sculptures that challenge normative depictions of gender and sexuality, and exploring queer intimacy through drawings, paintings, and videos.&nbsp;City in a Garden&nbsp;also features archival materials related to groups who innovatively combine artistic practices with their activism. The exhibition takes its title from Chicago’s official motto,&nbsp;Urbs in Horto, which translates to “city in a garden.” In the context of this presentation, this motto speaks to the exhibited artists’ and activists’ utopian visions of a metropolitan sanctuary for people of all races, genders, and sexualities. As queer people continue to fight for their lives and livelihoods under ongoing and renewed political threats, these visions remain as urgent today as ever.City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago&nbsp;is curated by Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator.

City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago&nbsp;will become the&nbsp;exclusive U.S. venue for "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind,"&nbsp;a comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist, musician, and activist Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan; currently residing in New York, NY),&nbsp;opening in October 2025. Traveling from Tate Modern in London, where it achieved record-breaking attendance, and developed in close collaboration with Ono’s studio, this&nbsp;groundbreaking retrospective spans seventy years&nbsp;of Ono’s innovative&nbsp;career. The&nbsp;exhibition features over 200 works, including participatory instruction pieces and scores, installations, a curated music room, films, music, photography, and archival materials. The exhibition highlights&nbsp;significant works from throughout Ono’s decades-long career, including the landmark performance piece "Cut Piece"&nbsp;(1964), a foundational work in performance and feminist art; her&nbsp;collaborations&nbsp;with&nbsp;prominent musicians&nbsp;such as&nbsp;John Cage,&nbsp;Ornette Coleman, and her late husband,&nbsp;John Lennon; selected activations of instruction-based artworks from her influential book&nbsp;"Grapefruit"(1964); innovative films from the 1960s and 1970s such as&nbsp;"FLY" (1970–71) and the once-banned "Film No.4 (Bottoms)"&nbsp;(1966–67), which she created as a "petition for peace"; recent works like her ongoing installation "Wish Tree" (1996–present); and public artworks emblematic of Ono’s enduring commitment to peace activism. Image: Yoko Ono with&nbsp;Glass Hammer, 1967, from&nbsp;Half-A-Wind Show, Lisson Gallery, London, UK, 1967. Artwork © Yoko Ono. Photo © Clay Perry.

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind

CAB 6 will be open to the public and on view from September 12, 2025 through February 28, 2026. The hub of the Biennial will once again be the Chicago Cultural Center, located in downtown Chicago.

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2025

Over the past decade, the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has sustained an international forum on architecture and urbanism centered in Chicago and has continued to produce the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture in North America every two years. CAB exhibitions and public programs have engaged over 2.2 million visitors with innovative ideas in design through over 400 original projects created by architects, artists and designers from nearly 50 countries. CAB is excited to celebrate its tenth anniversary with CAB 6, the next iteration of the Biennial to be held in 2025, led by Florencia Rodriguez, a writer, editor and Director of and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago's School of Architecture (UIC/SoArch), who will be the Biennial's first Latina Artistic Director.&nbsp; Titled&nbsp;Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, CAB 6 will present an expansive and multi-faceted exploration of the field of architecture and the built environment globally, specifically as they respond to and are remade by a rapidly changing world. In tandem with exhibitions, installations, events and a robust youth education program throughout Chicago, CAB 6 will also produce a series of initiatives, both local and virtual, that will expand the intellectual footprint of the Biennial beyond the city itself.&nbsp; The sixth edition of CAB, which is free and open to the public, will open its central exhibition in the Chicago Cultural Center on September 12, 2025 and run through February 28, 2026. Image: Image: Chicago: How Do You See? by Norman Kelley for CAB 1, 2015. Photo by Nathan Keay.

CAB 6

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.

Calendar

Chicago Gallery News