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

Join Heritage Auctions for a spectacular reception of Rare Books of Sci Fi and Fantasy from the David Aronovitz Collection, featuring a gallery talk with director of Rare Books, Francis Wahlgren, starting promptly at 6 p.m.

Rare Books

Conditions of Encounter includes three artists exploring the notions of environment and atmosphere. Hillary Irene Johnson, Daniel Miller, and Tuan Jones question how we affect, document, and inhabit spaces. Bringing together interdisciplinary practices, the exhibition reveals what typically goes unseen, inviting an awareness of presence within the space. Through camera-less photography, interactive sculptures, and paintings, the works explore perception and its relation to the subtle exchanges of encounter.Hillary Irene Johnson presents two interconnected bodies of work: camera-less salt prints from her ongoing 108 Days: Attentive Field and photographic works on silk from A Year in Light. Johnson’s practice uses natural light, duration, and handmade materials to create images that emerge slowly through repeated exposure and careful attention. Her work invites viewers into a quieter mode of perception, where light is experienced not as instant spectacle but as atmosphere, memory, and accumulation.Daniel Miller presents Mutual Light, a series of interactive sculptural flowers that react to visitors through infrared temperature sensing, distance detection, and air-quality monitoring. As viewers move closer, breathe, and emit heat, the flowers shift in color and luminosity, making visible the often-invisible energies exchanged between body and environment. Constructed from repurposed plastic milk jugs and custom electronic systems, the works combine ecological reuse with poetic technological responsiveness.Tuan Jones presents When Shadows Plié: The Choreography in Stillness, a series of paintings depicting humanoid figures performing ballet in Formula 1 helmets. The helmets allow the dancers to conceal themselves but also amplify their presence to better navigate the world of ballet, an institution that has historically excluded black and brown bodies. While Racecar driving and Ballet seemingly juxtapose– recklessness vs. grace, they relate in their culture of rigorous expectations of work and their precise and calculated movements. Dancers prance through a forest floor, bestrewn in contradiction, Jones creates a contemplative world where the viewer questions how they occupy and are perceived in space. Mutual Light, Daniel Miller

Conditions of Encounter

This exhibition of watercolors by John David Mooney captures the quiet power of the Irish landscape. Rooted in observation, Mooney's works evoke the elemental qualities of Ireland.

Irish Watercolors by John David Mooney

Join Heritage Auctions for an exceptional reception of American Art, featuring a gallery talk with Director of American Art, Aviva Lehmann, starting promptly at 6 p.m.RSVPs &amp; Inquiries:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:AngelaG@HA.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AngelaG@HA.com</a>

American Art 

Appraisal Days with Heritage Auctions Specialists

Gallery VICTOR is proud to present&nbsp;Bruno Surdo, a major exhibition of new work by one of Chicago’s most accomplished contemporary figurative painters. Opening April 11 and continuing through May 16, 2026, the exhibition begins with a public reception on Saturday, April 11 from 12–6 PM.For nearly three decades, Gallery VICTOR has represented Surdo, whose work occupies a rare space where the discipline of Old Master painting meets the urgency of contemporary life. Trained in the atelier tradition, Surdo’s practice is rooted in rigorous draftsmanship, anatomical precision, and the technical lineage of Renaissance and Baroque painting. Yet his subjects are unmistakably of our time, charged with psychological intensity and shaped by the social, emotional, and cultural realities of the present.This exhibition offers a sweeping and immersive view into Surdo’s current direction, bringing together monumental multi-figure narratives, intimate portraits, allegorical compositions, and exquisitely rendered anatomical studies. In works such as&nbsp;Crossroads of Time&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Union of Different Skies, Surdo constructs densely populated urban scenes that function as contemporary stages, spaces where anonymity and intimacy collide, and where individuals exist both together and profoundly alone. These compositions recall the grandeur and complexity of historical painting while confronting the fractured nature of modern experience.Alongside these expansive narratives, Surdo turns inward, exploring vulnerability, desire, and emotional exposure through more focused imagery. Paintings such as&nbsp;Daydreamer,&nbsp;Dreams of Hope, and&nbsp;Guardian&nbsp;capture fleeting yet deeply human moments, while works like&nbsp;Martyrdom of Freedom&nbsp;and&nbsp;Venus of America&nbsp;introduce a sharper, more confrontational edge. In these pieces, Surdo engages directly with contemporary cultural tensions, using symbolism and allegory to probe issues of identity, power, and societal fracture.Equally compelling are Surdo’s mythologically inflected works on paper and canvas, including&nbsp;Ganymede’s Seduction,&nbsp;The Harpies, and&nbsp;The Riddle. Drawing from classical sources, these works reframe archetypal narratives through a contemporary psychological lens, collapsing distinctions between myth and lived experience. Here, Surdo’s ongoing dialogue between past and present becomes especially vivid, revealing the enduring relevance of ancient forms in articulating modern consciousness.Throughout the exhibition, Surdo’s technical mastery remains unwavering, but the emotional tenor of the work pushes into increasingly personal and unguarded territory. The paintings reveal an artist deeply engaged with memory, identity, and the complexities of the human condition, unafraid to confront both beauty and disquiet with equal intensity.A second, more intimate presentation,&nbsp;Bruno Surdo: Unfiltered, will take place at the artist’s studio in Evanston on Saturday, May 2 from 12–4 PM. This special event will offer rare insight into Surdo’s process, with a focused exploration of his work centered on the human body and the raw immediacy of direct observation.Bruno Surdo was born in Chicago and has exhibited widely across the United States, with work held in numerous private and public collections. He is also a dedicated teacher and lecturer, recognized for his commitment to sustaining and advancing the tradition of figurative art.Later this year, Gallery VICTOR will present a special exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, centered around Surdo’s monumental painting&nbsp;Tragedy, Memory, and Honor. First exhibited at Chicago’s Daley Center, the work stands as one of the artist’s most powerful and unflinching achievements, a deeply moving meditation on collective loss, remembrance, and national identity. Its return to public view offers a rare opportunity to encounter a work that confronts history with both gravity and humanity. <a href="https://galleryvictor.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5e6a1ed366983a0ba9bbe21e1&amp;id=d0c86e304f&amp;e=c95ff8b063" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Off the Wall: In Conversation with Bruno Surdo | April 25, 10 AM - 12 PM</a>

Bruno Surdo: An exhibition in two parts

Friday evening, May 1, 5 to 8 PM.&nbsp; Joan Holleb, “Woodland Tales” Landscapes on Copper. Spring River North Gallery Walk, 5-8pm. ﻿On view through July 1st, 2026.

Joan Holleb: Woodland Tales

Friday evening, July 10, 5 to 8 PM. “All Terrain”, a landscape group show featuring Brooks Anderson, Mark Flickinger, Paula Blackwell, and others. River North Mid-Summer Gallery Walk, 5-8pm. On view through Sept 2nd, 2026.

All Terrain, a landscape group show

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

Misha Goro - Images of the City

Friday evening, November 6, 5 to 8 PM.&nbsp; Robin Denevan - “From the River”, New Encaustic Paintings. Late Fall Gallery Walk, 5-8pm. On view through January 5th, 2027. Image: Ocher Skyline 21 x 21, encaustic (wax, oil)

Calendar

Chicago Gallery News