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

<a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hyde Park Art Center</a>, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is proud to announce&nbsp;Jeff Carter: The Singer Pavilion Project, on view&nbsp;June 6 – September 20, 2026. Exploring the historic and architectural significance of the Singer Pavilion—the only building remaining of the former Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in Bronzeville, the exhibition prompts critical reflection on the Modernist promise of social progress, and considers how architectural ideals are compromised by histories of institutional failure, abandonment, and inequality.Since 2020, Carter has developed an extensive body of work exploring the site, history, and significance of the Singer Pavilion, a structure he refers to as a “Modernist ruin.” The exhibition presents eleven artworks, including sculptures, digital images, sound works and installations. Several artworks in the exhibition are made using materials extracted from the abandoned site: a waiting room chair, vinyl records, and native plants that have reclaimed the neglected landscape. The excavated materials were transformed into sculptures and conjure both the life in and around the building during its active years as a psychiatric institute (1948-2009) and the building’s dereliction following the hospital’s closure in 2009. A series of ‘zines developed in collaboration with artists with connections to the hospital and the surrounding Bronzeville community will be included.Founded in 1881, Michael Reese Hospital was a major research and teaching hospital, and one of the oldest and largest hospitals in Chicago, providing care to all people regardless of religion, nationality, or race. Its architecture, whose designers included Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus School, is considered by preservationists to hold historic value. ABOUT THE ARTISTJeff Carter (1967, he/his) is a multimedia artist living and working in Chicago. He earned his BFA at the University of Colorado, Boulder and his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His practice includes sculpture, kinetics, sound, installation, and digital media. Jeff has exhibited his work in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Renaissance Society, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Hyde Park Art Center. His work has been shown internationally at the Hayward Gallery, London, the Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, the IKEA Museum, Sweden, and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Ireland. His solo shows include the Chicago Cultural Center and the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, and Galeria Valle Orti, Valencia, Spain. A previous project about the demolished Michael Reese Hospital campus,&nbsp;The Common Citizenship of Forms&nbsp;(2011), was reviewed in Art In America and profiled in the 7th edition of Bauhaus Magazine. He is a Professor in The Art School at DePaul University. ABOUT THE HYDE PARK ART CENTERHyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; an open-access community-based school with 2,000 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to 1,000 elementary school students in public schools; weekly and summer teen programs for 100 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connect residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections. For more information, visit<a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.hydeparkart.org</a>.

Jeff Carter: The Singer Pavilion Project

Discover the art and philosophy of Kintsugi - the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold - in this all-level hands-on workshop.

Kintsugi Workshop: Repair and Reconnect

The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eacportfolioday.org/portfolio-day" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" target="_blank">EAC Portfolio Day 2026</a>. Portfolio Day is a chance for local students to connect with art college admissions teams, get information, and/or have art portfolios reviewed before applying to colleges and universities. Portfolio Review &amp; Informational Meetings are 10 minutes each and require registration in addition to the general event registration. To view the full Portfolio Day schedule, visit the Evanston Art Center website. Students will have a chance to meet with representatives from Art Academy of Cincinnati, College of Creative Studies, Loyola University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Northern Illinois University, Ohio University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Stamps School of Art &amp; Design, University of Michigan, and University of Illinois Chicago: College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, and University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign.To get started, register for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eacportfolioday.org/portfolio-day" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" target="_blank">Portfolio Day</a>, reserve your limited spot for meetings with representatives from art &amp; design colleges, and review the online guides to “What should I bring?” “Who will be there?” and “Where is the EAC?” Portfolio Day&nbsp;will be in the First Floor Gallery of the Art Center. This event is free and open to the public; registration is required. This exhibition is partially funded by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.Evanston Art Center, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization, is dedicated to fostering the appreciation and expression of the arts among diverse audiences. The Art Center offers extensive and innovative instruction in broad areas of artistic endeavor through classes, exhibitions, interactive arts activities, and community outreach initiatives.

4th Annual Portfolio Day

Come celebrate the official inauguration of the Italian Cultural Institute in its new home!&nbsp;On&nbsp;Tuesday, September 22,&nbsp;the Italian Cultural Institute will open its doors to the public in its new space at 150 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1580, Chicago, IL 60601. Join us to discover our new spaces, learn more about our initiatives, cultural events, and language classes, and enjoy an evening featuring music, art and more:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Hear live the music by the wildly popular Italian singer/songwriter duo&nbsp;<a href="https://iicchicago.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/open-house-colapesce-dimartino-duo-acoustic-live/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" target="_blank">Colapesce Dimartino</a>,&nbsp;performing a selection of their&nbsp;most acclaimed songs including their Sanremo hits, in an exclusive U.S. reunion for this special occasion;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Experience the sensation of standing beneath the fronds of an imaginative palm grove in&nbsp;<a href="https://iicchicago.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/open-house-a-palm-of-victory-exhibition-opening/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" target="_blank">A Palm of Victory,</a>&nbsp;Chicago’s first exhibition of work by acclaimed Italian artist&nbsp;Emilia Faro;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Discover&nbsp;<a href="https://italculturachicago.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" target="_blank">ItalCultura</a>’s Italian language classes and Italian Book and Film Club.</li></ul>Doors open at 5:30 PM, and the evening’s program begins at 6 PM&nbsp;with welcome remarks, an introduction to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.emiliafaro.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" target="_blank">Emilia Faro</a>’s exhibition by curator Maria Chiara Di Trapani, and the live performance by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@colapescedimartino499/featured" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" target="_blank">Colapesce Dimartino</a>. Food &amp; drinks&nbsp;and&nbsp;giveaways&nbsp;available (while supplies last).Looking forward to seeing you all there.&nbsp;Vi aspettiamo! Free entry. Advance registration is required, and all guests must bring a valid photo ID. Please reserve your space <a href="https://iicchicago.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/open-house-2026-inauguration-of-the-italian-cultural-institute/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>. For any questions, please email iicchicago@esteri.it.

Open House 2026 / Inauguration of the Italian Cultural Institute

Narratives of the Flesh II: Embodied Grief is an event scheduled for Wednesday, September 23 at 7:00pm. The event features Genevieve Ramos, Gretchen Hasse, and Barbara Little, who will present an evening of art and performance focused on the theme of inhabiting imperfect bodies and minds. Tickets are priced at $15.

Narratives of the Flesh II: Embodied Grief

LIVE AUCTION&nbsp;24 SEPTEMBER 2026 11 AM CT<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/uR8FlpVmpTi?e=d509e17cc6&amp;c2id=47e409457a7a9b1e38c2596e4383d23b" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">INFORMATION</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/598CqbPYkZx?e=d509e17cc6&amp;c2id=47e409457a7a9b1e38c2596e4383d23b" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">VIEW LOTS</a>

Essential Design

Join Us for an In-Person Presentation by Evanston/California Photobook Artist Richard (Chip) Hay, Jr. on Thursday, September 24, 2026, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at 1310 1/2 B Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL. You are invited to meet Richard (Chip) Hay, Jr. as he presents and leads a discussion on his inaugural photobook, Resounding with Echoes: Sojourns across Africa and America. (Kehrer Verlag, 2026). Through a nuanced interplay of black-and-white and color photography, Hay traces quiet correspondences between West Africa and the Americas, offering a lyrical meditation on everyday life across geography and time. Framed by an essay by renowned Nigerian author Emmanuel Iduma, the images are situated within a broader reflective context, collapsing temporal distance and proposing photography as a means of attentive witnessing—one that honors the ordinary while acknowledging the layered histories embedded within it. As part of the discussion, Hay will also provide his insights into the process of using images from a multi-decade archive to create a printed photo volume. Reviews of Resounding with Echoes have appeared in About Photography and in All About Photo. More information about the book can also be found on his website: RHayPhotography.com. About the Artist Richard (Chip) Hay visually explores the dynamics between people and the environments that they create and inhabit.&nbsp;Reflecting his interests and training in sociology, architecture, photography and design, Hay views built and natural environments as cultural manifestations of people and their societies. Hay has exhibited in several group shows including those at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles Center of Photography, PhotoPlace Gallery, Blue Ski Gallery and the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel.&nbsp;&nbsp;He studied photography at Northwestern University, where he earned a PhD in Sociology.&nbsp;He lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area.

Gallery Talk and Book Presentation with Richard (Chip) Hay, Jr.

"kept + carried" examines how care is inherited, performed, and remembered through the ordinary objects and rituals of domestic life. Drawing from family photographs, German folk traditions, household vessels, and stories gathered through community participation, the work considers the labor historically assigned to women: preserving, nourishing, mending, witnessing, and carrying memory forward. Layered textiles, translucent surfaces, printmaking, embroidery, sewing, and found materials function as an evolving archive where personal histories intersect with collective experience. Architectural forms, fences, jars, utensils, and suspended threads become metaphors for protection, containment, connection, and resilience. Audio recordings gathered through witness extend the work beyond the gallery, inviting visitors to contribute their own stories. Together, these works ask how acts of care become records of belonging that endure across generations.

Alexa Wheeler: kept + carried

The Shape of What Was transforms the gallery into a domestic interior made from life size furniture and household objects built with 3D printing pens and black Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament. Based on objects from places I have lived and left behind, the exhibition explores domestic objects as memory holders and reflects on migration, belonging, and the impermanence of home. For me, the act of remaking is empowering. It allows lost or distant objects to gain a new form and presence. Although the work begins from my personal experience, it invites viewers to reflect on what they have held onto, what they have left behind, and how they define home. Xinchen Li’s practice moves between contemporary jewelry, sculpture, and installation, using material storytelling to explore memory, migration, displacement, and the impermanence of home. Working with 3D printing pens and Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament, she recreates furniture and domestic objects from places she has lived and left behind. These hand built forms function as drawings in space, holding traces of personal history, routine, attachment, and loss. Her installation work is shaped by frequent relocation and the emotional weight of objects that cannot always be carried forward. Through the act of remaking, Li gives these lost or distant objects a new presence. Her work invites viewers to reflect on their own relationships to home, memory, and belonging, transforming private experience into a shared space of recognition.

Xinchen Li: The Shape of What Was

There are rooms we leave, and rooms that never quite leave us. The Rooms That Made Me enters a feminine world of dollhouses, sewing tables, bedrooms, fabric, painted faces, seams, and small rituals of making and care. It is a world that can feel intimate, delicate, almost enchanted — shaped by objects and gestures that have accompanied women and girls across generations. At the center of the exhibition is women’s work: sewing, mending, arranging, caring, decorating, concealing, holding things together. These gestures may appear ordinary, even invisible, yet they carry histories within them. Passed from mother to daughter, generation after generation, they become structures through which women learn how to inhabit the world — and themselves. Within these structures, something else is passed on too: an inherited feminine wound. Not necessarily through words, and not always consciously, but through repeated roles, expectations, gestures, silences, and ways of being. The rooms change, but certain patterns remain. A dollhouse can be a place of imagination and also a structure of order. A seam can hold something together while hiding where it was torn. The act of caring can protect, but it can also teach a woman to disappear inside the needs of others. And yet, the exhibition does not remain inside the wound. The very gestures through which something has been inherited begin to offer another possibility. Sewing, joining, mending, holding, and remaking become a language of repair. What has been passed down does not have to be passed on unchanged. The same hands that learned to hold things together can also take them apart, rearrange them, and make something new. The Rooms That Made Me does not try to resolve these inherited structures. It asks us to notice them — to look again at the gestures, objects, roles, and spaces that feel so familiar we often stop seeing them at all. This is an intimate, quiet exhibition, one that gently shifts the familiar, inviting us to look again at what has become so deeply embedded in the home that it can seem almost invisible.

Anat Wegier: The Rooms That Made Me

Woman Made Gallery is pleased to spotlight ten sellable works from Feminism 250: Woman Made America, on view through September 26. Anchored in America 250, the nationwide commemoration of the United States' 250th anniversary, Feminism 250 looks back at 250 years of feminist thought and action, from early demands for basic rights to today's movements for gender justice, and asks how that history can guide the feminist futures still being built. The works in the exhibition engage themes including erasure and visibility, reclamation of authorship and narrative power, intersectional experience, art as resistance, and personal narratives that speak to broader struggles for equity and representation.

Feminism 250: Woman Made America

CAVA's Signature Annual Juried Exhibition&nbsp;Later Impressions&nbsp;Opens August 7 at The Art Center Highland Park (Highland Park, IL). More than ninety contemporary works by artists age 50 and older will fill the galleries of The Art Center Highland Park when the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists (CAVA) presents Later Impressions, its signature annual juried exhibition and longest-running yearly exhibition, August 7 through September 26, 2026. The exhibition marks CAVA's first partnership with The Art Center Highland Park and showcases artwork created within the past two years, emphasizing the continued creativity and vitality of experienced artists.&nbsp;&nbsp;Selected from more than 230 submissions, the exhibition features 93 works spanning painting, photography, printmaking, encaustic, pastel, mixed media, and sculpture in bronze, wood, metal, assemblage, and other media. Installed throughout the Main Gallery, the Cindi Elkins Gallery, the main foyer, and additional first-floor spaces, the exhibition offers visitors an immersive fine art experience.&nbsp;Fellow Highland Park artist Julie Scoma describes her acrylic painting “Clouds” as quiet and meditative, adding that she values CAVA because "so often people don't find their art until later in life."CAVA’s Exhibition Manager Susan Bennett believes The Art Center Highland Park provides an exceptional setting for CAVA's signature exhibition, allowing visitors to experience the remarkable diversity of the artwork. James Lynch, Executive Director of The Art Center Highland Park, called the exhibition "a wonderful way to close out our gallery season. Many of CAVA's members regularly exhibit at TAC, and we're excited to welcome both familiar and new artists into our galleries,” while TAC Gallery Manager Caleb Smith said the exhibition will foster new artistic connections and creative collaborations.Awards of Excellence, including Best in Show, will be presented during the Opening Reception on Friday, August 14, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., with awards announced at approximately 6:30 p.m. Admission to both the exhibition and reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. All artwork is available for purchase with proceeds supporting independent artists and The Art Center Highland Park.CAVA will also present its annual Learning Symposium on Saturday, September 26, from noon to 3:00 p.m. at The Art Center Highland Park. Topics include estate planning for visual artists, the VibrantCast digital platform, and a panel discussion on gallery representation for older artists. The symposium is free for CAVA members and open to the public for a $10 fee.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;About CAVAFounded in 1988, the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, exhibiting, and promoting experienced visual artists through exhibitions, education, professional development, and community engagement. Learn more about&nbsp;CAVA, its events and exhibitions, or to become a member at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wearecava.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.wearecava.org</a>.&nbsp;About The Art Center Highland ParkThe Art Center Highland Park is the North Shore's home for artistic discovery and creative exploration, offering exhibitions, classes, and programs for artists and the community. Learn more at&nbsp;<a href="http://theartcenterhp.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">theartcenterhp.org</a>.&nbsp;The Art Center Highland Park is located at 1957 Sheridan Road in Highland Park IL and is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m.&nbsp;Closed Sundays.

Later Impressions

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

Jenal Dolson: Interrobang

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

Tim Anderson: Mythologies

Join Art Encounter at the Ravenswood studio of Chicago painter Marcia Festen to explore her unique process of painting with ink, pigment powder, oil pastels, and other media on flexible, translucent film. See how Marcia’s large-scale works explore change through loosely-drawn organic imagery that does not resolve into a fixed or final structure. Engage in a lively discussion of Marcia’s work, watch a demonstration of her process, and have the chance to step into the artist’s shoes by experimenting with materials and intuitive mark-making. No experience is necessary! The event will be led by Art Encounter’s Alex Stevenson and Sarah Packer. Visit <a href="https://www.artencounter.org/materials-and-mark-making" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">artencounter.org/materials-and-mark-making</a> to register.

Materials and Mark Making: Marcia Festen Studio Visit

September 26, 2026, 11:00am-12:30pm$35 | Student: $18While plenty can be learned by walking Chicago's streets, a whole hidden history can be seen in its alleys. Discover how Chicago became the alleyway capital of the country, dig into the history of urban trash, and see Chicago architecture from a new perspective on this alleyway walking tour. This tour with curator and historian Madeline Crispell will trace a route through the Gold Coast and end at Washington Square Park, covering everything from how activists like Jane Addams worked to clean up the alleyways to how a new generation of green alleys can help the city adapt to a changing climate.

Walking Chicago’s Alleys

Join us for a special lecture by Michael Workman, a new Road Scholar. Presented in partnership with the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau. FREE EVENT!

Michael Workman: Writing as Cultural Archaeology and the Poetics of Place

Chicago Truborn's 13 Year Anniversary is up nextChicago Truborn opened its doors in West Town with a pretty simple idea: make art accessible, to support artists, and create a space that felt less like a traditional gallery and a more like a place to call home.&nbsp;I've watched artists and galleries come and go. I've seen our neighborhood change, the buildings, the businesses, and entire casts of people come through the Chicago art scene. I've seen artists who were just getting started become household names. Taken chances on people I believed in. Put paintings in living rooms and bedrooms and kitchens... murals on walls, weird objects on bookshelves, and art in the hands of people who maybe never thought they were “art collectors.”&nbsp;Chicago Truborn is Still here. Still independently owned, putting artists first. Still trying to make art feel approachable. Still got that door propped open. Playing my tunes.It's only right to celebrate my business Bat Mitzvah by showing an artist who has been Instrumental in my experience, both professionally and personally. An artist whose name and work can not be seperated from the history of Chicago: That artist is my friend Anthony Lewellen.&nbsp;Anthony has been an important part of the Chicago Truborn story for years, as an artist, as a friend, and as someone whose work has continued to evolve alongside the city around him. His paintings occupy that strange and wonderful space between familiar and surreal : Recognizable pieces of Chicago, memory, culture and everyday life filtered through his own visual language.&nbsp;ANTCK will take over the gallery with a new body of work created specifically for this exhibition.&nbsp;Two site specific murals will be painted and a new, limited edition, print drop will be released!&nbsp;And while this show itself honors Anthony, the anniversary represents all the artists who have trusted me with their work. The collectors who bought their first piece here. The people who wandered in because they saw a mural outside. The friends who helped support me and wound up becoming die hard collectors. My fellow business owners who come to check on me throughout the day.The people who have been coming through our doors since 2011, those who just discovered us last week! Anyone who has ever walked in and thought, “Oh shit. I LOVE this.”13 years is a long time to do anything independently. It’s long enough to see entire chapters of your life come and go. I know how incredibly lucky I am to have built something that's lasted this long. I also know it's less about luck, or me... And more about YOU and what you've allowed this to become. SO, let's celebrate!

Anthony Lewellen: Various Work 

In-person&nbsp;Artist’s Talk:&nbsp;Thursday Sept. 17th, 7 PM.&nbsp; The Gallery will host a show by Perspective member William Bridges. Titled “MY Photographic Memory?”, this exhibit features recent work in which he explores an alternate possible linkage between memory and photography.&nbsp;He writes, “Some people are said to have “photographic memories”, the ability to recall comprehensive, detailed pictures of everything they have ever seen.&nbsp;I am asserting that everyone has a photographic memory, but that the type of visual image differs from one person to the next. What I am trying to offer here are not crystallized pictures of the past, but photographs of how my recollections appear in my head.”&nbsp;

Bill Bridges: MY Photographic Memory

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

Gelsy Verna: Mother, Father, Please Help Me

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

2026 Rockford Midwestern Biennial

In/Between Arts festival

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

Maria Finitzo: Ice and Light

<a href="https://oh4nipbab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001ZTVM3iEHVvEKfhwQsCJ46nYsOtugxTCRnJWFhXj3C4aw2b1ikI2RR4bYcKnJo2bJATn5nKUzl94dLIGZzzK25Y46MNSWLvkFmhvBxipnTnvMCQeXwQ1ZwvLH9SnpA4LMbjM42UkAyzISFt19C8admA==&amp;c=OpWSoMN78G4oRFySMyD1OGhkbkImsazZhB2hDzq3Yu3L4fVJztoJXw==&amp;ch=A80OcZyC2k_H1KvHKq452YZCNJAZS-2W9p5885Am_AmD1dQAYpBqUg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Jackson Junge Gallery</a> is excited to present their third group exhibition of the year, <a href="https://oh4nipbab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001ZTVM3iEHVvEKfhwQsCJ46nYsOtugxTCRnJWFhXj3C4aw2b1ikI2RR-HxZAJtVFApv_EQP7elVU7vi8Zg5fbFsuRSFYiRsL8u3KCLREJzsf9QXpzXoEL9J_gBwDRGAk6zs_y2B1xYdIU-53YqsoY7zKv3TBHyzAT5tjC0UEhMSxkD7lznfWI9eg==&amp;c=OpWSoMN78G4oRFySMyD1OGhkbkImsazZhB2hDzq3Yu3L4fVJztoJXw==&amp;ch=A80OcZyC2k_H1KvHKq452YZCNJAZS-2W9p5885Am_AmD1dQAYpBqUg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">AFTER DARK</a>, featuring artwork that shines a light on nightlife in Chicago. The exhibition will feature the work of 28 artists local to the Chicagoland area. From the beginning of a big night out, to the eventful CTA ride home, AFTER DARK explores both the&nbsp;well-known and the hidden corners of Chicago&nbsp;﻿after the sun has gone down.

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