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

Image: Herman Aguirre,&nbsp;¡Ni uno mas!, 2023, Oil and oil/acrylic skins on panel, 63" x 98" x 4.5"

Herman Aguirre

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s (b. 1961) current practice creates objects that blur the line between art and utility, ultimately inviting viewers to meditate on the role and “usefulness” of art in society. His approach challenges notions of function, beauty, and purpose in art by making works that resemble utilitarian objects but often serve no conventional practical purpose—or, alternatively, reveal surprising functionality that critiques broader sociopolitical or environmental concerns. One could say that Manglano-Ovalle has a phenomenological practice (the study of how we experience things through our senses and perceptions)—he places profound importance on the viewer’s sensory and intellectual experience, emphasizing how art can engage the body and mind in ways that go beyond representation.&nbsp;Manglano-Ovalle’s solo exhibition at DePaul Art Museum&nbsp;presents site-specific works that are both familiar and opaque, encouraging viewers to confront ambiguity and engage in deeper contemplation. Our experiences are never predetermined; they exist at the intersection of the private and the public, the personal and the shared. However deeply felt, they are also open to examination. Manglano-Ovalle’s work calls us to inhabit the present moment fully, urging us to consider: How does the work draw us in, and how do we, in turn, respond to it—right here, right now?&nbsp;Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s exhibition is curated by Ionit Behar, PhD, and organized by DePaul Art Museum.&nbsp; Image credit: Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Untitled, 2023. Pine and graphite. Courtesy of the artist.&nbsp;

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: A Want for Nothing

“Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago” explores the Young Lords Organization's trajectory in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Gentrification and urban renewal displaced the vibrant Puerto Rican community of the 1950s and 1960s. Originally a street gang, the Young Lords transformed into a prominent civil rights organization.&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://click.agilitypr.delivery/ls/click?upn=u001.DMJAPtLMia7h-2FoQouHpZ7VucsQcy3YmuN9E-2BBveaH488JEjYiLL6gNNvfxkw-2FGqyXcJ0Mk6-2BmX21J9JiYsIHXzENjzM2kQUb5rLOElK1dhV69SYpdTqREc3e7jN4PgfJPYhyLo7-2BAld1-2FJUzovRT1g-3D-3DuNLS_0g5QiKQ3ANfCkWXxwzczn1phIok0-2FnBF8GNWXrNhq2-2B4ftGj9DI8Jn4AfRAGeAJVr5d8tZaUkO86wELMDcgOg2JJnq4MYeWc7vJT8UFoP9JB4ktPrjnyT0Q-2FgJDbrrl4gKCk3EQ7EQCKK7Y-2B8HvMMN5HreRSKCKXooND8rxLMCbg-2B05tGi82LGb3OISpzjoVvNgw2sPbWSU7IbcWae7HM9JoWTFkwW5YoLJI26ngy3AkfG50sS15PTIRzqm6Xq8xg4JTDnNCSo49XfmFsOiKdBMTb1it82ohrC8v4yi79AI-2Feu-2FfnhrSxpeKJACjPI33Ac6lAR9ifJFK0op4yLggtB7tMaRoR5VfNcuQixNIBNkVp59o7I5P2w57eXAwKl052-2FXVJz-2FJ0MmeAsEo-2FxV1a7CKY8uui3w612dejPzEw-2BTQSuMdoVcWV0e5bKErNGydSEd4FTVtC-2B4i2SFYXlasyXoiAaC8IqnO6QOzviL41Kc-3D" target="_blank">Curator and faculty member Lazú</a>&nbsp;is recognized as a leading scholar of the Young Lords Organization and helped establish<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://click.agilitypr.delivery/ls/click?upn=u001.DMJAPtLMia7h-2FoQouHpZ7V-2BNjmn91WVUUN2-2Fz4l6r58oGmh5RnBYP1-2BidTW12IE5zDqc1VXBwp11yHHAQUpxiOw6A8kd7Aa-2FmNXcX27Ibv0-3Drbby_0g5QiKQ3ANfCkWXxwzczn1phIok0-2FnBF8GNWXrNhq2-2B4ftGj9DI8Jn4AfRAGeAJVr5d8tZaUkO86wELMDcgOg2JJnq4MYeWc7vJT8UFoP9JB4ktPrjnyT0Q-2FgJDbrrl4gKCk3EQ7EQCKK7Y-2B8HvMMN5HreRSKCKXooND8rxLMCbg-2B05tGi82LGb3OISpzjoVvNgw2sPbWSU7IbcWae7HM9JoWTFkwW5YoLJI26ngy3AkfG50sS15PTIRzqm6Xq8xg4JTDnNCSo49XfmFsOiKdBMTb1it82ohrC8v4yi79AI-2Feu-2FfnhrSxpeKJACjPI33Ac6lAR9ifJFK0op4yLggtDIbp275btVB9OOkgETcHRh-2Fr1dH1NQcsk5j2s5jnl-2ByFsavGAbC6Krxq6psExt846nJXS1P1TcvF9H1bxgytih1OqQvWLHaVyrV5Ugxhon5ZOGg7-2BG3qee5-2FJTEqfxaoLqhfwQVnAMZ6YByWfds2hA-3D" target="_blank">&nbsp;DePaul's Young Lords special collections archive</a>&nbsp;as a destination of study on social movements.&nbsp;The exhibition explores the origins of the movement, emphasizing the concept of counter-mapping as a means of activism and community empowerment. Counter-mapping is a mapmaking approach that challenges narratives upheld by traditional maps, representing elements of a place that may have been overlooked or intentionally erased.The exhibition features archival materials, historical artifacts, photography, murals and prints, with works by Carlos Flores, Ricardo Levins Morales and John Pitman Weber. It also includes newly commissioned work by Sam Kirk and a central multimedia installation by Arif Smith with Rebel Betty, inviting visitors to engage with one of the most influential movements in Latinx civil rights history, rooted in the everyday struggles of a Chicago neighborhood."Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón confronts the erasure of the spaces that gave rise to the Young Lords’ fight for justice,” said Lazú. “These works reclaim that ground, making visible the neighborhood that shaped the movement and insisting that its memory of struggle and community endures."&nbsp;﻿Image credit: A member of the Young Lords writes in chalk as a family looks on during a Puerto Rican heritage festival at the Armitage Methodist Church, 1969. ST-40001976-0057, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum.

Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: The Young Lords in Chicago

Sale 6454<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://freemansauction.com/auctions/6454-available?page=1&amp;per=48&amp;tab=overview" target="_blank">The Collector's Cabinet</a> Feb 10, 2026&nbsp;10:00AM CT Online / Chicago

The Collector's Cabinet

Watercolorist Michael Ireland (b.1952) challenges the norms traditionally associated with the medium. Often working on a large scale, Ireland explores how technique and texture impact color. Ireland’s creative studies began at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and he has continued to explore the possibilities of painting and watercolor while navigating a fruitful and diverse artistic career path. Ireland&nbsp;is a member of the National Watercolor Society and the Illinois Watercolor Society.

Different Strokes

Winter Series 2026:&nbsp;Collaboration Wednesdays, 1:00 pm&nbsp;|&nbsp;Online: 1/14, 1/21&nbsp;|&nbsp;In-Person:&nbsp;2/11, 2/18 Join Joanna Pinsky for two Zoom programs and two in-person museum visits exploring different concepts of what it means to collaborate on the production of art, including creating work with another individual, partnering within oneself to portray different aspects of one’s interior, and incorporating communities into the art-making process.

Winter Series 2026: Collaboration

LIVE AUCTION&nbsp; 12 FEBRUARY 2026 11 AM ET<a style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://wright20.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50e5c1be866e9aaa28cfec1db&amp;id=cd0b1b22fe&amp;e=d509e17cc6" target="_blank">VIEW LOTS &amp; BID</a>

Photographic Masterworks from an Important Private Collection

The works in this exhibition are inspired by Epiphany Center for the Arts’ history as a church building, especially the dedicatory plaque hung around the corner in the hall. The grey and white text-based paintings are inspired by the plaque’s color and shape. But while these paintings initially evoke banal, cliched, vaguely uplifting “word art” in vacation rentals and hotels,&nbsp;the language in them quickly veers into denser, darker, trickier, more complicated interpretations.&nbsp;Though intended to seem like ‘old sayings’ all the texts are original. They are inspired by Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is a thing with feathers” and the Greek myth of Pandora, who opened a forbidden chest and allowed all the evils in the world to fly out. Panicked, she slammed the chest closed, shutting the gift of hope inside.The themes of wings, flight and transcendence are continued in the images of birds and boats. Traditional iconography in Christian churches, such images are metaphors for faith and belief. Here again, tropes associated with lightness and beauty reveal their darker side as the birds (our stand-ins?) are sometimes in danger, or in anguish, and boats drift unmoored, without direction.&nbsp;But others float or fly past, unconcerned and unaware.These works refer to the difficulty of maintaining hope, and the insistence that we keep trying anyway. They call to mind the pain of distress as well as the possibility of grace. About Rebecca Keller<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://rebeccakeller.net/section/15938.html" target="_blank">Rebecca Keller</a>’s multidisciplinary career spans art-making across diverse media, research into language and history, and creative writing. She has received grants and honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, a TEDx Talk, two Fulbright Awards, and an American Association of Museums International Fellowship.Her artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hyde Park Art Center, the Portland Art Museum, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the 4th International Waldkunst Biennial, Tartu Art Museum, Chesterwood Museum and Studio, the Tides Institute &amp; Museum of Art, the Elmhurst Art Museum, Glessner House Museum, the Estonian National Art Museum, and the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Recife, among many other venues and projects across the U.S., China, Europe, and Brazil.Her writing on art has been published by The Public Historian and the textbook Art and Public History (Rowman &amp; Littlefield). She is the author of Excavating History: When Artists Take on Historic Sites (Stepsister Press), a book exploring her work in historic environments. Her essay “Mazes and Mirrors, Reflections and Play” was published by the Franz Hals Museum.Keller also writes fiction. Two of her short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and her debut novel, You Should Have Known, was released by Crooked Lane Books/Penguin Random House in 2023. Her fiction will also appear in the forthcoming anthology “20 Over 60” from Regal House Press.

Rebecca Keller: Hope Is the Last Thing

What have you forgotten? When you found it or rediscovered it were you happy, sad, annoyed, delighted, regretful? It was once important and then it became forgotten.What is new to you was once forgotten by me. The work on display is a representation of compartmentalizing ideas and memories with no distinct beginning or end.

Noel Mercado: How Could We Forget About You

In&nbsp;The Children Play Games, the artist explores the fragile relationship between play, perception, and imagination through a lens that intertwines past memories, present realities, and future possibilities. The show invites viewers to reflect on how children engage with their world in an age where Artificial Intelligence and deep Internet culture increasingly shape their experiences and understanding. By juxtaposing traditional play with AI-infused elements the artist creates a dialogue about the shifting boundaries of authenticity and creativity in childhood.&nbsp;Today’s children grow up alongside intelligent machines while immersed in an endless, unfiltered digital stream. Their minds are trained to scroll and react, often at the expense of slower, tactile forms of play that once nurtured fine motor skills, independent thought, and imaginative problem-solving. Algorithmic feeds promise limitless information but leave little room for open-ended discovery, offering access without the depth of true exploration.Artificial Intelligence sharpens this dilemma by performing acts of invention that once belonged to the developing mind. From generating pictures to completing stories, AI delivers finished creations that bypass the frustration—and growth—of making something from nothing. When creativity is outsourced to algorithms, children risk becoming consumers of novelty rather than creators of it, spectators to a simulation of imagination that demands nothing of their own.Against this backdrop,&nbsp;The Children Play Games&nbsp;seeks to reclaim the essential terrain of imagination. Each photograph functions as a portal into a dreamlike, yet critical space where the physical and digital coexist without clear hierarchy. By inviting viewers to step into these constructed realities, the exhibition calls on society at large to consider how we might safeguard environments that sustain curiosity, protect the vital connection between mind and hand, and empower the next generation to shape worlds of their own making rather than surrender to those designed for them.

Jordan A. Porter-Woodruff: The Children Play Games

The image of the Black woman in Western Art is one riddled with stereotypes, racial mythologies, visions of servitude and sexual transgressions. In 1994, Harvard’s Dubois Institute began a research project which later birthed seven volumes on&nbsp;The Image of the Black in Western Art&nbsp;by Harvard’s scholar Henry Louis Gates and David Bindman.&nbsp;All volumes document in detail the fate of ‘black presence’ in European Art. This exhibition of abstract figurative paintings continue in the same vein but removes all references to European Art to focus squarely on the Black female model but not as a tool to reaffirm white superiority and Christian morals.Shane-Jahi Jackson, in&nbsp;Black Female Presence,&nbsp;evades providing an instructional manual for the viewer on how to interpret his paintings of Black women. His “no comment stance” is a deliberate one, resisting the impulse to qualify or explain the why of these paintings. Instead, he demands the same reaction to the sublime on seeing Botticelli’s Renaissance painting of the&nbsp;Birth of Venus.&nbsp;They, too, are beautiful.The ensemble of works posits the idea that Black women should be a portal to the universal. He invites the viewer to leave their cliches, bias and judgement at the door.Shane-Jahi celebrates these women.﻿

Shane-Jahi: Jackson Black Female Presence curated by Juelle Daley

Woman Made Gallery (WMG) presents The Uncivil Canvas: Art in the Age of Discord, a national juried exhibition examining the role of artists as witnesses, truth-tellers, and catalysts for civic dialogue during a time of profound social division. Opening January 17, 2026, the show features 34 artists from across the United States whose work confronts the emotional and political tensions shaping contemporary life. The artists use painting, fiber, printmaking, sculpture, photography, ceramics, collage, mixed media, and installation to challenge harmful narratives and elevate voices often pushed aside. Juror: Karen M. Gutfreund is an independent curator, artist, and consultant focused on feminist and social justice art. She has held positions at MoMA, leading galleries, and the Pacific Art League, and served as National Exhibitions Director and board member for the Women’s Caucus for Art. She hasorganized 50+ national exhibitions, curated the book Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump, exhibits widely, and lives in California’s Sierra Foothills. Exhibiting Artists: Elaine Alibrandi, Salma Arastu, Nicci Arnold, Bianca Bisej, Lorraine Bonner, Nancy Calef, Dagny Rayn Chika, Patricia Dahlman, Sally Edelstein, Pamela Flynn, Lisa Freeman, Libby Gamble, Kelly Hartigan Goldstein, Tonia Indigo Hughes, Cynthia Kerby, Beth Lakamp, Toni Martinez, Clarissa Martinez, Jessica McKenzie, Melisa of MWY Pottery, Judith Mogul, Lori Moretti, Priscilla Otani, Recka, Donna Ruff, Gigi Salij, Adrienne Sloane, Siana Smith, Lucy VanRegenmorter, Lisa Venditelli, Jeane Vogel, Emily Weddle, Michelle Wilkie, Teresa Greve Wolf Together, these artists illuminate the social forces shaping American life while affirming art’s capacity to connect, provoke, and build community across differences. Gallery Hours: Wednesday–Sunday | 12–5 PMLocation: Woman Made Gallery,&nbsp;1332 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60607,&nbsp;Street parking and nearby garage available. Exhibition EventsOpening Reception:&nbsp;Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 4–7 PMClosing Reception + Artist Walkthrough:&nbsp;Saturday, February 14, 2026 | 2–4 PM About Woman Made GalleryFounded in 1992, Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting women and non-binary artists through exhibitions, professional development, and community programming. WMG provides vital visibility for artists marginalized by gender and creates space for critical, inclusive, and transformative conversations in contemporary art. Organizational Neutrality StatementAs a registered Illinois 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Woman Made Gallery does not endorse or oppose political candidates or parties and refrains from promoting individual ideological or religious beliefs. All programming and communications are mission-driven and focused on artistic merit, diversity of perspective, and constructive dialogue. SupportWoman Made Gallery is supported in part by The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; The Illinois Arts Council Agency; a major anonymous donor; and the generosity of members and contributors.

The Uncivil Canvas: Art in the Age of Discord

Metaphysical poet John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself,” in his 1624 meditation on the interconnectedness of humanity. In Every Man is an Island, artist Natasha Moustache turns this idea inward, asking what it means to exist both within and apart. To belong to a place that embodies solitude and connection at once.The Seychelles Islands, an archipelago of 115 islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, embody this paradox. In Moustache’s black and white photographs, the island emerges not as a place apart, but as a living communion of body and spirit, humanity and nature, self and divine. Each image becomes a quiet testament to the ways in which life here is interwoven with the elements — water, wind, light, and faith.Within this constellation of islands, humanity is held tenderly by the microcosm of the islands themselves, a mirror reflecting the vast, interconnected universe beyond.

Natasha Moustache: Every Man is an Island

Join Brushwood’s poet-in-residence Kathryn Haydon and fellow haiku poet David Green for a midwinter poetic stroll along woodland paths near the Des Plaines river. As we walk, we will quietly gather observations and inspiration from the nature around us, jotting thoughts and haiku in our notebooks. When it’s time to warm up, we will gather at Brushwood Center to write more haiku, share, converse, and eat.

Haiku "Ginkgo" Walk with Brushwood Poet-in-Residence Kathryn Haydon

The Language We Create&nbsp;speaks directly to the role of artists in the world of visual communication.&nbsp;Throughout the diversity of their explorations, these 11 artists, all cohort residents of Chicago Artists Coalition, remain in dialogue with one another. Each work brings its own context, the clear signature of its creator - a story crafted through the artist’s uniquely defined language. These pieces, while distinct, have common threads that link them one to another.&nbsp;We see a vocabulary built on textures, colors, and shapes, layered with movement and light in the same way nouns, verbs and adjectives are traditionally woven together in prose. These combinations as envisioned by the artist craft their narrative, document their reality.Language however, is an inherently social tool used to enhance relationships, for expression and connection. While the work is its own being, it asks the viewer to bring their own interpretation to the experience, linking themselves to the piece as well.

Chicago Artist Coalition: The Language We Create

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://experience.mcachicago.org/7252/7257" target="_blank">Get Tickets</a> Admission is free to Family Day attendees. What does your heart beat for? Honor passion, textiles, and those who came before us. Designed for children under 12 and their grown-ups, MCA Family Days invite our youngest visitors to be the museum’s artists, thinkers, and collaborators. Image: Family Day | Screen Time, MCA Chicago, November 9, 2024. Photo: Ricardo Adame.

Family Day | Heartstrings

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/mapping-outside-the-lines" target="_blank">Details</a> Lines are foundational to how maps communicate. They guide you home from a new restaurant, tell you how tall a mountain is, and warn you not to stray too far in the wrong direction. They sometimes even tell you about the life a map has lived. Over centuries, mapmakers have developed (and abandoned) an amazing variety of ways to use lines to bring our world to life. This exhibition follows lines on maps to their extremes in examples from mundane textbooks to avant-garde art. Through these lines, maps rationalize their world view, even as they reveal perspectives that are neither universal nor neutral. Mapping Outside the Lines&nbsp;is generously supported by Rand McNally. <h3>Curator</h3>David Weimer, Robert A. Holland Curator of Maps and Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography <h3>Exhibition-Related Programming</h3> Public Programs at the Newberry&nbsp;are free and open to all. Registration required in advance. <a style="color: rgb(91, 92, 87);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/folded-map-project" target="_blank">Folded Map™ Project Screening and Discussion, November 6, 5:30pm</a>Join us for a screening of&nbsp;Folded Map™ Project – The Movie&nbsp;followed by a discussion led by Tonika Lewis Johnson. <a style="color: rgb(91, 92, 87);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/mapping-migrations" target="_blank">Mapping Migrations, November 15, 11am</a>Artist, Sandy Rodriguez, and Newberry Curator of Maps, David Weimer, will lead an artmaking workshop exploring how you can repurpose maps to make your own map of Chicago. <h3>Exhibition-Related Adult Education</h3> Adult Education classes at the Newberry&nbsp;require registration in advance and a modest fee. <a style="color: rgb(91, 92, 87);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/how-maps-work" target="_blank">How Maps Work, four sessions, starting November 4, 2pm</a>Taught by David Weimer, this class will trace the development of maps and mapping in Europe and the Americas by looking at what, at different points in the last 500 years, has made a map a map. In conjunction with the exhibition, we will engage with some contemporary artists’ work with maps to think about why maps continue to matter to us in the digital age.

Mapping Outside the Lines

Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Balance a solo exhibition featuring Chicago artist Susan Hall. Her oil paintings reverently explore nature. Hall’s animal subjects —often deer, birds, rabbits, and other woodland creatures — are rendered with the gravity and presence of portraiture. Sometimes a human figure joins the animal in quiet communion. A lace or crochet pattern runs throughout many of her pieces, veiling the subject to create a dreamlike atmosphere while also suggesting a delicate connection. Hall’s work is informed by meditations on coexistence, vulnerability, and the powerful harmonies that sustain the natural world. Susan Hall was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and has been a Chicago area resident since 1993. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States, including shows at Lyonswier Packer Gallery in New York City, Thomas Masters Gallery in Chicago, and Butters Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Her honors include an Illinois Arts Council grant, a Georgia Council for the Arts grant, and Best in Show at the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society's Animal Images exhibition juried by Ed Paschke. Hall received her MFA from the University of Georgia and her BA from Connecticut College. Image: Watcher, Oil on panel,&nbsp;43 x 48”

Susan Hall: Balance

The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to&nbsp;Evanston Art Center’s Faculty Exhibition. The exhibition will be on display from January 14 – February 15, 2026 in our First Floor Gallery and will be free and open to the public.The Evanston Art Center boasts over 90 accomplished artists as faculty members teaching in ten visual art departments. This January, we spotlight our talented instructors in this biennial exhibition, displaying the breadth and depth of our faculty's artistic abilities. The biennial EAC Faculty Exhibition is a visual testament to the dedication and professionalism of our faculty who both teach and maintain their own artistic practice.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.

Evanston Art Center’s Faculty Exhibition

Carnival&nbsp;brings together a new body of work by&nbsp;Vesna Jovanovic, inspired by her interest in medieval French&nbsp;carnivals&nbsp;and other festivals from around the world in which social ranks and identities are ignored and concealed, allowing participants to connect through food, dance, laughter, and sexual expression. In the group of paintings exhibited, all created in the past three years, the artist playfully renders invented spaces in which the body is both setting and subject—collapsed into unexpected relationships with objects that bring joy and pleasure. Jovanovic’s process begins by pouring diluted ink onto sheets of Yupo (a synthetic paper made of polypropylene). Once the ink is dried, the artist responds to the texture by painting candy, sparklers, confetti, sex toys, jingles, and much more across the fleshy surfaces–prioritizing relationships that evoke attraction, repulsion, laughter, and recognition. Eye of Providence, 2025, Ink, vinyl paint, and acrylic pen on polypropylene, 60 x 60 inches.

Vesna Jovanovic: Carnival

An Installation of Works by Michael x. Ryan, 1979-2025Thursday, January 22nd | 5:30 PM | Lecture with exhibiting artist | FreeRockford Art Museum | 711 N Main St. RockfordJoin us for a free public opening and gallery walk with exhibiting artist Michael x. Ryan on Sunday, October 19th at 2 PM at Rockford Art Museum. The gallery walk will begin at 2 PM.Chicago-based artist Michael x. Ryan gathers the quiet imprints we leave behind — from sidewalk stains and river paths to shower puddles and fallen tree limbs — and gives them form, weight, and voice. Through drawing, mapping, wood relief, and 3D printed objects, Ryan captures traces of human presence — the edge of a river, the imprint of a wet body, the marks on a street — and renders them as physical forms that evoke movement, memory, and place.This exhibition brings together key installations spanning over four decades, from early works shaped by the Ox-Bow landscape to large-scale reliefs inspired by the streets of Chicago to one tree of interest on the family property in Woodstock, Illinois. By drawing attention to overlooked details, Ryan invites us to consider how our everyday movements shape the spaces we inhabit — and how those spaces, in turn, record and reflect our presence and passage through time.

Echoes of Presence and Place

Female Force&nbsp;celebrates 16 female artists from Rockford Art Museum’s permanent collection. Featuring works by Alice Aycock, Susanna Coffey, Julia Fish, Michelle Grabner, Christine LoFaso, Michiko Itatani, Gladys Nilsson, Nereida Patricia, Ann Rogula, Amy Rueffert, Hollis Sigler, Diane Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Margaret Whiting, and Mary Lou Zelazny, this exhibition reflects the museum’s long-standing commitment to collecting women artists and the significant impact their work has made on the art world.

Female Force

Eli Keszler is a Grammy-nominated artist, composer, and percussionist based in New York. Whether performing an improvised solo set at the drum kit or writing an electro-acoustic score for a film, he brings an agile experimentation to his work. For this site-specific appearance, Keslzer performs live in the gallery space in the afternoon light. Within this unique architectural and acoustic setting, he offers his own take on some of the dynamics at play in Leah Ke Yi Zheng’s exhibition, including change and variation, iterative multiplicity, and logics of impermanence. Visit&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://renaissancesociety.org/" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information.

Performance: Eli Keszler

"Sabina Ott: all this and not ordinary" is the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work since her death in 2018, presenting 33 works created in the final years of her career. The exhibition’s title is drawn from a poem in Gertrude Stein’s "Tender Buttons" (1914), a text that remained a pivotal source of inspiration for Ott throughout her life. Employing materials such as polystyrene and spray foam, Ott transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary, constructing works of art that are at once imaginative and dreamlike. For Ott, art offered a space of transformation, a means of turning trauma inside out and reshaping it into forms of play and wonder. This exhibition highlights the depth of her experimental practice and affirms her enduring legacy as an artist who expanded the possibilities of material and meaning.

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