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

<h2>Kate Goodvin: Trust Fall</h2> <h4>Exhibition Dates:&nbsp;April 6–May 1, 2026</h4> <h4>Reception:&nbsp;Friday, May 1, 5–8 pm</h4> Tandem Press is excited to host&nbsp;Trust Fall, a Master of Fine Arts Qualifier Exhibition by Kate Goodvin, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA Candidate and 2025-2026 Tandem Press Studio Project Assistant. By merging printmaking, painting, and collage, Kate Goodvin creates monumental self-portraits that chronicle the evolving story of becoming. Her work is shaped through the perspective of a Gen Z woman growing up amid the digital transformation of contemporary life and coming of age during a period marked by increasing uncertainty. Goodvin’s practice examines how distinct eras of our lives are shaped and defined by pop culture movements, media saturation, music, and the broader political, environmental, and sociological climates that surround us. Deeply personal and rooted in self-discovery, she looks inward to uncover reflections of a broader shared condition, capturing the intimate process of navigating identity in a rapidly shifting world. This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund. More information and installation images coming soon.

Kate Goodvin: Trust Fall

Bert Leveille’s Waterfall Portals examines human connection to the earth, each other, and consciousness. In this installation piece, animated, otherworldly “mindful beings” travel the waterfalls of the universe like portals, imploring viewers to question where they go and what knowledge they can access through their multi-dimensional travels. <a href="https://newgallery.online/bert-leveille-waterfall-portals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://newgallery.online/bert-leveille-waterfall-portals</a> <a href="mailto:info@artcitychi.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">info@artcitychi.com</a>&nbsp;| (312) 690-9634Gallery is Open: Fridays, April 17 &amp; 24&nbsp;from 5-8 PM, Closing reception: Friday, May 1st from 5-9PMExhibition can also be viewed from the street&nbsp;at night&nbsp;or by appointment (email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:reevah@newgallery.online" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reevah@newgallery.online</a>)Image Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Bert Leveille: Waterfall Portals

In partnership with the&nbsp;Elmhurst Park District, the&nbsp;Elmhurst Art Museum&nbsp;announces the return of&nbsp;Art in Wilder Park&nbsp;to the heart of Elmhurst this spring. The only festival of its kind hosted by an art museum, Art in Wilder Park features over 130 booths showcasing unique, handcrafted treasures including jewelry, paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photography, and fiber arts created by talented Midwest artists. Visitors can enjoy a variety of artisan food vendors, a dedicated Kids Court with creative hands-on activities, and community partner and sponsor displays, all set against the picturesque backdrop of Elmhurst’s Wilder Park. The free-to-the-public event annually attracts over 7,000 people to the museum campus and takes place rain or shine,&nbsp;Saturday to Sunday, May 2-3, 2026, from 10 am to 5 pm,&nbsp;at 175 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst.A new offering in 2026 is the addition of an Emerging Artist Pavilion that taps into the talent of the Chicagoland area, including the hundreds of artists coming out of prestigious college and university programs each year. Artists featured in the festival will be selected by jurors Fatima Hendricks, Manager of Exhibitions &amp; Residencies at Chicago Artists’ Coalition, and Whitney Bradshaw, Curator at Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, IN.&nbsp;Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Elmhurst Art Museum&nbsp;Allison Peters Quinn says, “Art in Wilder Park feels like a hometown hug in the spring. It is the best time of year to support diverse artists, eat delicious food, and let the kids run around. This year, we are excited to partner with other regional art institutions to open the door even wider to emerging artists, and connect their work and ideas to our local communities.”Art in Wilder Park is produced by the Elmhurst Art Museum in partnership with Elmhurst Park District. Presenting&nbsp;sponsor Kelly Stetler | Compass. Festival sponsors: All American Gutter Protection, Chiro One Wellness&nbsp;Centers, Discover DuPage, Enjoy Illinois&nbsp;Explore Elmhurst, Great American Exteriors, The Home Improvement Network,, and Renewal by Andersen Windows. Special Event Sponsors: Chicago Event Graphics and Unlimited Heating &amp; Cooling. Sculpture Sponsors: Community Bank of Elmhurst, Lakeside Bank, Wangler and Company, and WinTrust Bank of Elmhurst.&nbsp;ABOUT THE ELMHURST ART MUSEUMThe Elmhurst Art Museum is located at 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst (IL), 25 minutes from downtown Chicago by car or public transportation (Metra). On the museum’s campus is the McCormick House, a single-family home designed in 1952 by Mies van der Rohe, one of the great architects of the 20th Century. The McCormick House is one of only three residences designed and built by Mies in the United States – and one of only two open to the public.The Museum is open Wednesday and Thursday from 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., Friday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Regular admission prices are $18 for Adults (ages 18+), $15 for Seniors, $10 for Students, and $5 for Children. For more information, please call 630.834.0202 or visit&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/" target="_blank">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>.

Art in Wilder Park

Perspective Gallery is proud to host “Teaching,” Nelson W. Armour’s ode to classroom teachers. Resulting from a two-year residency with “<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=8c7e2f36fa&amp;e=49b9939ea4" target="_blank">Artists in the Public Schools, formerly CPSLIves</a>,” the project examines teaching and what it means to be a teacher. This photographic essay is an homage to the challenges, triumphs, hard work and effort of teaching, from the small details to the big picture.&nbsp;“Teaching” opens on Thursday, April&nbsp;2, 2026&nbsp;with an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 4, 2026 from 5- 7 PM. The exhibit runs through Sunday, May 3, 2026. A Virtual Artist’s Talk will be held on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 7 PM. To register for the talk, go to Perspective Gallery’s website,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.org/april-2026" target="_blank">https://perspectivegallery.org/april-2026</a>.&nbsp;Armour was privileged to follow three teachers over two school years in two Chicago Public Schools, the Lázaro Cárdenas Elementary School in the Little Village area of Chicago (2021-22 school year) and the Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School in the Austin neighborhood (2023-24 school year). This project, sponsored by&nbsp;Artists in the Public Schools, documents how teachers engage and relate to their students as individuals and classes.Above image - Teaching #20

Teaching

Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA&nbsp;features artwork created by facilitators of and participants in the TIERRA program—Transforming Internal Experiences for Resilience and Restoration through Acceptance—a research-informed, nature-based training program that supports Community Health Workers serving communities across Lake County, Illinois. TIERRA equips Community Health Workers with tools to address the interconnected challenges of trauma, health disparities, and environmental injustice. Rooted in mindfulness, restorative practices, and the healing presence of nature, the program creates space for participants to explore their own experiences while strengthening their capacity to care for others. Through visual art, reflection, and creative expression, participants in this program have translated their personal and professional journeys into powerful works that speak to resilience, healing, and connection to the land. The pieces on display offer insight into the inner landscapes of those working at the front lines of community health. These are individuals who navigate complex social and environmental challenges while supporting the wellbeing of others. Created during guided sessions that integrated nature observation, contemplative practice, and artistic exploration, the artworks reflect themes of renewal, rootedness, and collective care. Plants, seasonal cycles, and the natural rhythms of the landscape serve as both inspiration and metaphor for growth and restoration. By sharing these works with the public, the exhibition honors the vital role Community Health Workers play in building healthier, more equitable communities.

Healing Together: The Artwork of TIERRA

ENGAGE Projects is excited to bring a fresh take to the gallery experience with the upcoming exhibition Moonlight: Out of the Chaos in Chicago’s historic Bucktown district. The pop-up show, organized by Director of ENGAGE Projects Jennifer Armetta, curator Nora Schneider, interdisciplinary artist Kasia Kay, and sculptor Lucy Slivinski, is a rumination on feminine forces and cyclical change, imperfection and inner peace. Just as the moon reflects the sun’s light, it also represents a reflection on our own lives, choices, and the state of the world around us; Moonlight asks the questions, How do we find the calm amidst turbulent times? What is my guiding light in the darkness? The gallery will showcase a variety of sculpture and mixed media painting and will be host to a series of exhibition programming made to activate this space of community including cocktail hours, panel discussions, and community gatherings. Please join us on Thursday, April 9th from 5-9pm for the opening celebration! Interested in introspection and identity, Kasia Kay is a Polish American painter and sculptor who splits her time between the United States and Poland. She earned her B.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago in 2004 and acquired expertise in metal casting at the Chicago Industrial Arts and Design Center in 2017. Kay has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United States, and her works are included in collections in Europe and the U.S. A seasoned curator, Kay has curated numerous international group exhibitions and site-specific projects in major cities such as Athens (Greece), Chicago (U.S.A.), Miami (U.S.A.), and New York (U.S.A.), contributing to the global art community. Kasia Kay has been featured in Artnet News, :arte Venice, Newcity Art, Chicago Gallery News, Chicago Interiors, and The New York Times among other publications.Lucy Slivinski is a sculptor and installation artist based in Chicago. With over 40 years of experience, she utilizes recycled materials and inventive processes in her life-long practice. Slivinski holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from Northern Illinois University. Her innovative approach to art has earned her numerous honors and opportunities including her installation “Bon Journée! In the Land of Love,” at Nick Cave’s exhibition space Facility in 2025, the solo exhibition “Passion Dance”at N’Namdi Center for the Arts in 2023 in Detroit, Michigan, and three years as the artist in residence at EXPO Chicago where she created large-scale light installations among other opportunities. Her work is part of many private and public collections including Capital Investments Collection, The Longhouse Collection in New York, the City of Chicago, City of Bolingbrook, Illinois, and the City of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Slivinski’s work has been featured in prominent publications such as Art in America, The New York Times, NewCity Magazine, The OG Magazine, Sculpture Magazine, Chicago Interiors, and Luxe Magazine.Based in Chicago, Nora Schneider is an interior designer, curator and patron of the arts. She attained her Interior Design degree from The Harrington School of Interior Design in 2000 and formed her firm that same year. Schneider believes interior design should be as unique and diverse as its inhabitants and that art enhances everything. A core principle of her practice is to create an exceptional design experience that has your living space mirror not only who you are, but enhance the way you live. Her award-winning designs have been featured in LUXE Magazine, Modern Luxury Interiors, Sophisticated Living, The Chicago Tribune and ABC News, to name a few.ENGAGE Projects is committed to supporting our local arts community and elevating artists and patrons alike. Our mission aims to bring art to the Chicago community and beyond, eliminating boundaries and making it possible for everyone to live with art. For more information about our mission, please visit engage-projects.com.

MOONLIGHT: Out of the Chaos

Our Free Days Are Taking The Night Shift! From March through November, we’re returning to Free First Tuesdays! On the first Tuesday of every month, enjoy extended hours from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm - admission is free for all, no residency restrictions. Want more chances to visit? Take a look at our full lineup of 2026 Free Days below and mark your calendar!

Free First Tuesday

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

Lecture in Photography: Carla Williams

Dorothy Berry&nbsp;and&nbsp;Sumayya Ahmed&nbsp;discuss the possibilities of Black archives within and outside of cultural heritage institutions. In collaboration with the&nbsp;Black Metropolis Research Consortium.<a href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=744134a799&amp;e=00938adab1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Register Here</a>

Dorothy Berry & Sumayya Ahmed on Archives

Mark your calendars for this annual&nbsp;celebration of community and creativity. This&nbsp;year, The Art Center will highlight the incredible work of celebrity photographer&nbsp;Sandro Miller, featuring his series on members of Chicago’s historic Steppenwolf Theatre, and members of the Chicago Imagists group,&nbsp;Hairy Who.

TAC's Spring Benefit

A beautifully crafted object can enhance any home or workspace. From a mug for your morning coffee, a plate for your toast, a bowl for your favorite soup, a rocking chair to relax in, a colorful pottery jar for storage, a contemporary hand-blown glass vase, and a woven textile are not just art pieces, but also practical items that can be used in our daily lives. Art can be all around us in the form of these functional pieces that make our spaces fun.The exhibition will showcase artwork from over 30 artists, many from Illinois.Fine Line will host an in-person reception on Thursday, March 26, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM to officially open the show, with several of the participating artists in attendance. As with all Fine Line gallery receptions, this event is free and open to everyone. Light refreshments will be served during the evening.

Home Improvements: The Functional Art Show

ART HAS POWER! To transform, heal &amp; ignite us! It's just the prescription we need sometimes to bring us back to our human self. Come for a visit! Our spring show opening coincides with art EXPO CHICAGO. We are located just 1 mile from Navy Pier and nestled between Michigan Ave. &amp; the Northwestern medical complex in the newly landmarked 161 East Erie Row.

Art Prescriptions

<a href="https://rkcgwygbb.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001F8PqBR1SxUwkNanLfePGlspUn7Ci32rad6YaebB3m3jw0eJ4HivRcS4LTz7sL3Wd0ioc4O1ObRWGRXN3dLPA7IDC4qyZ-o_agERp_AqJyX_4LJ0g7sD_ifMumW4_qIzHKZceYLKQseu4K74spzXnLA==&amp;c=WX5eCvEZwUhiJUQ9W_TG3WsEBfEUe2jSHeHcJL07Jmkn5Y1Qdav9NA==&amp;ch=-Lp4qTcCCxgirixg5KOZqMPo2PM-WTyaAOfo5xfgIt-J8mhihNw-iA==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" target="_blank">Spring Benefit 2026﻿</a>

Spring Benefit 2026

moniquemeloche is pleased to present&nbsp;<a href="https://t8j4tqkab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WFlU7W4LTgFBZidKvGk-GMgbTatLhIXDTDXTK7jM8dY5sXLY5vpWufokFIa7-Z6v2vm297gYuvzgHTc8bGuPIqYu2PYKarZUIwHeonRf9aDMhVCUExLDMYQiYZboyIRyz2htSIRpgHIpfTxEtLmZnSrxr9EDh7fZL5qJE2UvkihBOI7HJ2KYRw7ZsrKrz2Z1QVkjlvVuZDTH0K3qJ9qYwHtwBTcLSUWPjfK0-1R_74B5XFf3Oo8Xv0sxr0jR-Cv3&amp;c=nGgkeIwsfe9UL_xZO-29WGl_5YmQl-Fb87vI_J3KXBCesriRu7ojjA==&amp;ch=SqAS8I_H4_Ti55iNuqtnnuQW4QQbfns99j50vPiFwtDgQRNrLubvFw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ALL THERE IS</a>, an exhibition of new works by&nbsp;<a href="https://t8j4tqkab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WFlU7W4LTgFBZidKvGk-GMgbTatLhIXDTDXTK7jM8dY5sXLY5vpWuWHJ4Y7pHsvo9-PqZCzuP8QYWuRQAzr81_5O_kp4ZZWxaSmJAQ0oU6eQcu7ZgPozb2UFmmyR4KoSC5kSX-Cr9pVVxkszVVuNsplBIVabSYNdjJp4hXyMufZ0vQBHBRLwMq889KE6gCfQC7mxeVjQOfAF8jOUlqOLxg==&amp;c=nGgkeIwsfe9UL_xZO-29WGl_5YmQl-Fb87vI_J3KXBCesriRu7ojjA==&amp;ch=SqAS8I_H4_Ti55iNuqtnnuQW4QQbfns99j50vPiFwtDgQRNrLubvFw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cheryl Pope</a>. Pope is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose intimate studio practice centers on textile “paintings.” Working with needle-punched wool roving on cashmere, Pope creates richly tactile works that translate the language of painting into fiber, using material, texture, and color to explore memory, relationships, and the poetics of everyday life. For the artist’s seventh solo exhibition at the gallery,&nbsp;ALL THERE IS&nbsp;debuts a new body of landscape works that explore the spiritual and emotional resonance of the land as a site of recollection, silence, and shared human experience.&nbsp;The artist began this series after a residency at the Contemporary African Museum in Marrakech, Morocco, where travels to the Atlas Mountains and desert terrain evoked an immediate sense of recognition and belonging. Upon returning home, Pope continued her journey to the Abiquiú region of New Mexico, a site that carries familial resonance for the artist, where summers were spent by her father and grandmother. Together, these experiences, while separated by geography, awakened a mystical stillness inside the body, initiating a broader connection to the universality of the landscape. While Pope’s earlier works centered the physical body as a site of identity, vulnerability, and care, from her early work with underrepresented youth, to deeply personal reflections on love and family, to her celebrations of the female body, these new landscapes suggest the body has not disappeared but expanded, shifting from the visibility of the figure toward a more esoteric understanding of how human experience is embedded within the landscape.Drawing from modernist painting, slow cinema, and contemplative poetry, the works approach landscape as a site where emotional, geological, and psychological states converge. Art historically, Pope draws from traditions that understand landscape not as scenery but as a living presence. Like Georgia O’Keefe, Pope’s landscapes strip away narrative figures to focus instead on the inner architecture of place. The compositional clarity of Pope’s landscapes also recalls Roger Brown’s distinctive visual language, particularly his use of stacked horizons, simplified forms, and rhythmic patterning. Materially and formally, the works embrace a process of attentive listening. Shapes derived from photographic studies are reworked through memory and intuition, becoming compositions that emphasize rhythm, vibration, and the relational nature of color and texture. Unfolding in undulating strata, layers of ochre, sand, umber, and clay mix with unexpected bands of lavender, pink, sage, and deep green, suggesting both environmental time and a thoughtful color sensibility. The artist describes the process as closer to composing music than painting: each mountain functions as an instrument, its tones and tactile surfaces forming part of a larger symphony of land, light, and archeological record. Here, Pope’s wool fibers act almost as sediment deposits, a buildup only achieved by slow labor – literal time embedded in material.&nbsp;The title,&nbsp;ALL THERE IS,&nbsp;refers to a personal family story; words that were carved by the artist’s grandmother inside the wedding band of her grandfather. These words are a small but profound gesture that holds both intimacy and universality, and a candid confrontation to the bare truth of it all: that beneath the layers of narrative, culture, and history, the land remains vast, silent, and enduring. Here, Pope translates the emotional concerns that have long defined her practice, from intimacy, vulnerability, caregiving, and connection into geological form, where layered terrains become metaphors for the ways love accumulates, transforms, and endures.<a href="https://t8j4tqkab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WFlU7W4LTgFBZidKvGk-GMgbTatLhIXDTDXTK7jM8dY5sXLY5vpWufokFIa7-Z6v2vm297gYuvzgHTc8bGuPIqYu2PYKarZUIwHeonRf9aDMhVCUExLDMYQiYZboyIRyz2htSIRpgHIpfTxEtLmZnSrxr9EDh7fZL5qJE2UvkihBOI7HJ2KYRw7ZsrKrz2Z1QVkjlvVuZDTH0K3qJ9qYwHtwBTcLSUWPjfK0-1R_74BR07-C_gW1UH9XbDqtJtyg&amp;c=nGgkeIwsfe9UL_xZO-29WGl_5YmQl-Fb87vI_J3KXBCesriRu7ojjA==&amp;ch=SqAS8I_H4_Ti55iNuqtnnuQW4QQbfns99j50vPiFwtDgQRNrLubvFw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Learn more</a> Cheryl Pope,&nbsp;TEACH ME HOW TO BE VULNERABLE&nbsp;(detail), 2026

Cheryl Pope: ALL THERE IS

Joy Machine is pleased to present Life Forms, a solo exhibition by Janny Baek, on view from March 20 to May 9, 2026.How do we conceive of change? With fear, excitement, or uncertainty? As Janny Baek builds sculptural ceramics of speculative beings and imagined landscapes, she grapples with these questions. The work follows its own dream logic, one that accepts incongruity and dissonance as necessary to play and experimentation. Marbling hunks of colored clay, coiling bases, and molding a singular material into something new is part of an exploratory practice that embraces transformation and its often strange outcomes. Life Forms emerges from this dual meaning, invoking both the act of creation and the fantastical works it produces. Neither wholly abstract nor representational, Baek’s sculptures draw on natural structures and processes and invite us to question how we interpret the world around us. Recognizable forms like open blossoms, birds, and creatures are met with the unexpected. These lively components make even the more abstract works appear animate, like ambiguous organisms that might decide to scuttle away. They evoke something primordial and yet are exhilaratingly new. Baek paints in the way she sketches, as a means of developing ideas and visualizing their potential. For her ceramics, she incorporates hand building alongside the Japanese pottery technique known as nerikomi, which involves splicing and designing patterns with strips of colored clay. “My material choices are a way of thinking about natural processes: color gradients as the continuous nature of change, a multitude of colors as potential, abundance, and vitality, and patterns as signals and communications,” she says. Hovering between worlds, Baek’s work populates a speculative environment in which beings morph, mutate, and blossom, their individual features forming an otherworldly lineage that’s recognizable but not identical. While “temporarily and imperfectly captured in a moment of many possible transformations,” the works beckon us into a world in which change is not only inevitable but also the most alluring proposition. Life Forms is Baek’s Chicago debut.An opening reception will be held on March 20, and the artist will be present.About the artist: Janny Baek is an artist and architect born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Queens, New York. She received her BFA in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design, and worked as a sculptor in animation and toys before completing her Master's in Architecture at Harvard University. Baek brings her experience as a sculptor, designer, and architect to her ceramics today. After founding her firm, McMahon-Baek Architecture, in 2014, she returned to the medium in 2019. Her work is part of the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and has been shown at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Korea Society, and the Korea Ceramics Foundation, among others. Baek currently lives and works in lower Manhattan with her husband and their two daughters.

Janny Baek: Life Forms

April showers brings us a solo show with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.manvshadow.com/erik-jon-olson-shadowboxx-collective-artist" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Erik Jon Olson, ShadowBoxX Collective Artist</a>. Olson is renowned for his unique large-scale artwork that uses quilted plastic waste to illustrate the amount of waste material we produce, prompting viewers to reconsider and reevaluate their relationships to plastics. His work also addresses how our unfettered capitalism and mass consumption can waste our natural resources and damage our society.An ethos of minimal waste permeates Olson's creative process. Each piece is constructed of eight to 12 layers of used single-use plastic, which he quilts together using his grandmother's circa 1960 sewing machine. He uses overstock and leftover thread, plus scrap materials from his own production process. Schedule a Viewing (through 5/9)&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mev@manvshadow.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mev@manvshadow.com</a>

What A Waste: Erik Jon Olson

Material Memory&nbsp;explores how knowledge, history, and cultural memory are carried through objects and the act of making. Bringing together four artists working in ceramics, fiber, tapestry, and print, the exhibition centers analog processes, material investigation, and the slow accumulation of gesture and meaning.Through hand-built ceramics, bead-encrusted vessels, pony-bead tapestries, and meticulously carved relief prints, the artists in&nbsp;Material Memory&nbsp;examine how culture and personal histories are inherited, learned, and reinterpreted through labor, repetition, and intimate engagement with material. These works ask viewers to consider how objects embody memory, mediate identity, and carry stories across generations.Featuring:Chris Salas&nbsp;(Ceramics)Salas’s hand-built ceramic forms emerge through intuitive, iterative processes informed by personal relationships, historical research, and the ongoing legacy of colonization in the Americas. Clay becomes a vessel for cultural reckoning, holding layered histories through time-intensive making and surface.Katie Mongoven&nbsp;(Fiber, Beading)Mongoven transforms found blue-and-white ceramic vessels with intricate beadwork and embroidery. Her labor-intensive practice explores diasporic memory, identity reconstruction, and the reclamation of Orientalist objects through touch, repetition, and bodily presence.akeylah wellington&nbsp;(Sculpture, Tapestry)Wellington’s pony-bead tapestries and mixed-media sculptures blend humor, endurance, and personal history. Drawing on childhood imagery, early digital culture, and found materials, her work preserves stories of displacement, resilience, and generational inheritance.Ramiro Rodriguez&nbsp;(Printmaking)Rodriguez’s woodblock and linoleum relief prints document familial and cultural narratives rooted in Mexican-American print traditions. Through carving and layered printing, his work embeds memory, transformation, and inherited knowledge into the physical act of making.Together, the artists in&nbsp;Material Memory&nbsp;use material as language—foregrounding slow, analog processes as acts of remembering, learning, and transmission. Their works are deeply personal yet culturally resonant, tracing the invisible threads of inheritance that bind past, present, and future.

Material Memory

Woman Made Gallery is pleased to announce&nbsp;<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=349683bcce&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Seeds of Resilience</a>, a multidisciplinary art exhibition featuring work by 41 artists.&nbsp; Curated by Monica J. Brown and Nora Moore Lloyd,&nbsp;Seeds of Resilience&nbsp;brings together women and non-binary artists whose works explore how personal, cultural, and ecological survival are deeply intertwined. Centered on themes of environmental justice, ancestral memory, and the intimate relationship between care and resistance, the exhibition takes the seed as its guiding metaphor.<ul><li>Opening reception on Saturday, April 11, from 4–7 p.m.</li><li>Closing Reception with Artist Walkthrough on Saturday, May 9 from 2–4 p.m.</li></ul> EXHIBITING ARTISTSBrooke Bartholomew, Sharon L Bjyrd, Sharon Bladholm, Gabriella Boros, Julia Bustos-Vasquez, Julie Carpenter, Emily C-D, Lynn Cox-Winston, Sharmon Davidson, Victoria Fuller, DiDi Grimm, Senyah Haynes, Lisa Marie Phoenix Jackson, Natalie Jackson, Adia Jamille, Linye Jiang 江麟冶, Joi, Lilly Kim, Yuliya Klochan, Sarita Kvam, Tulika Ladsariya, Beatriz Ledesma, Andi Linden, Marian Lyndgaard, Lauren Macklin, Erica Moriarty, Stephanie Mulvihill, Andryea Natkin, Courtney Nzeribe, Pamela Penney, Laurie Peters, Leah Schenbaum, Erin K. Schmidt, Piper Snowber, Dorothy C. Straughter, Harriette Tsosie, Chanya Vitayakul, Gail Wagner, Joan Wheeler, Marjorie Woodruff, Stella Zee CURATING TEAMMonica J. Brown&nbsp;is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores memory, history, and personal mythology through visual art, sound, movement, writing, and performance. She has exhibited widely across the U.S. and internationally, completed prestigious residencies, and received grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.Nora Moore Lloyd&nbsp;(Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, born 1947) is a multidisciplinary artist whose photography and videography center Indigenous storytelling, elder voices, and traditional cultural practices. A longtime member of Chicago's Native American community, she has exhibited at major institutions including the Field Museum, the Chicago History Museum, and The Block Museum of Art. VISIT&nbsp;<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=bf2a429fb7&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">THIS EXHIBIT</a>&nbsp;AT WOMAN MADE GALLERYAddress: 1332 S. Halsted St, ChicagoHours: Wednesday through Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. Image: artwork by&nbsp;<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=bf6c1a7f6a&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emily&nbsp;C-D</a>)

Seeds of Resilience

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

Family Day | Let Loose

This exhibition is a collaboration with Loyola University's Fine Arts Division, including student and faculty work from both institutions.&nbsp;The show will feature works that convey meaning through embodied art practice. Pieces that explore the rich history, tradition, and cultural expression of contemporary sculpture, including ceramics, glass, and stone, as well as innovative, reinterpretative sculptural works using non-traditional materials that push the boundaries of visual art.

Material Inquiry

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" 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;Yoonshin Park: Prompt and Prompted, an exhibition highlighting the artist’s, as well as her students’, experimental ways of creating artist books that push the boundaries of what books can be. On view from&nbsp;January 24-May 10, 2026,&nbsp;the exhibition offers hands-on experiences for the audience to make their own artist books on multiple dates throughout the duration. Both the exhibition and the public programs are free and open to the public. An artist book is an artwork that reimagines or transforms the form, function, or concept of a book into an expressive medium. For more than two decades, Park has used artist books as an experimental form and conceptual space to expand what books can be. For Park, the medium offers freedom that invites alternative ways of living other aspects of life, and invites the audience to live their lives as expansively as Park defines artist books. This exhibition presents new works that further her exploration of artist books as spatial, symbolic, and participatory sites capable of engaging notions of memory, marginality, translation, and transformation. More than a creator, Park is an arts educator of the medium. Since 2019, she has been teaching courses on artist books virtually through the Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studios, and has found her practice of teaching to be as generative for her as it is for her students. The title of the exhibition refers to the reciprocal exchange that takes place in Park’s classroom. The exhibition includes artworks by 12 of Park’s students, including Kimberly Bailey, Miriam Bisby, Priya Deb, Devie Dragone, Bryne Hadnott, Rebecca Kelly, John Michael Korpal, Carol Lett, Camille Levi, Sumiah Salloum, Virginia Van Vynckt, and Max Washington. Park shares how this presentation differs from past work: “This exhibition marks a shift in my practice from intimate, book-inspired gestures to spatial and communal forms, allowing me to explore how books can extend beyond the page. I hope visitors experience the work as an invitation to engage with their own stories and with spaces—both in books and in the gallery—in new ways, noticing how meaning and connection can emerge through shared interaction.” Free public programs include the following:Wednesday, January 28, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, February 11, 1pm Artist-led workshopThursday, February 19, 6pm Artist talk with Yoonshin Park and curator Mariela AcuñaWednesday, February 25, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-throughWednesday, March 4, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, March 18, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-throughSaturday, April 4, 1-4pm Center Day workshop led by one of Park’s students, John Michael KorpalWednesday, April 8, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, April 22, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, May 6, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-through This exhibition was curated by Mariela Acuña, art center Director of Exhibitions and Residency, and produced by Tran Tran and Liang-yu Huang, with fabrication support provided by Huang.&nbsp; <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1771018610/l1mhn1jbmv7qkttusjfz.png"> ABOUT THE ARTISTBorn in Seoul, Korea, Park now resides in Chicago. She has participated in residencies including the HATCH Residency at the Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center’s Center Program. She teaches at both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Hyde Park Art Center, and in 2024, served as curator and facilitator for the Hyde Park Art Center’s Bridge Program. Park has exhibited at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Center Gallery, Beverly Arts Center, Evanston Art Center, Riverside Art Center, Pablo Center and the AIR SPACE at Saint Kate Hotel in Wisconsin, and Simyo Gallery in Seoul, Korea, among others. She is represented by Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. 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 rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" target="_blank">&nbsp;www.hydeparkart.org</a>.

Yoonshin Park: Prompt and Prompted

Krasl Art Center presents&nbsp;Malcolm Taylor: Prologue, The State of Play, on view February 7 through May 10, 2026 in the ArtLab. The exhibition opens with a free public reception on Thursday, February 6, from 6 – 8 PM.The State of Play&nbsp;marks Benton Harbor–based photographer Malcolm Taylor’s first gallery exhibition, offering an adventurous exploration of storytelling through action figure photography. Taylor stages intricate miniature sets and captures them in vivid, cinematic photographs that blur the line between play and narrative. Featuring characters drawn from comics, video games, and popular culture, the works are infused with humor, nostalgia, and imagination, inviting viewers into fully realized worlds at a toy-sized scale.

Malcolm Taylor: The State of Play

Mason Pott, born and working in Chicago, is a fine artist whose practice centers on traditional oil painting with a contemporary sensibility. Known for his vivid explorations of florals and color theory, he approaches each work with a deeply considered, multidisciplinary process.&nbsp;Every painting begins with a carefully staged, high-quality photoshoot of a floral arrangement—an essential step in&nbsp;shaping the composition, lighting, and emotional tenor of the&nbsp;final piece. From there, Pott hand-cuts an aluminum panel to&nbsp;echo the contours of the bouquet, creating a sculptural support&nbsp;that blurs the line between painting and object.This integration of form and subject transforms the still-life&nbsp;tradition, inviting viewers to engage the work as both image and&nbsp;physical presence. Pott’s practice reflects his belief in the&nbsp;interconnectedness of craft, intuition, and design.&nbsp;His meticulous attention to color relationships animates the&nbsp;surface of each painting, resulting in works that feel simultaneously timeless and distinctly of the present.&nbsp;He received his BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015.Image: Color Field [Purple &amp; Crimson} with Kale &amp; Grapes,&nbsp;2025, Oil on custom cut aluminum panel, 26 x 38 in., 66 x 96.5 cm

Chromatic Fields by Mason Pott

Special Event on Mothers Day (May 10)Deb Koo&nbsp;is an oil painter based in Charlotte, North Carolina, whose work reflects a refined balance between cultural perspective and painterly experimentation. She began her formal art studies at Smith College and went on to earn her MFA in Western Painting from Ewha Womans University in Seoul. A member of the Goodyear Arts Collective and a professor of art at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, Koo actively contributes to Charlotte’s creative community. Her work has been exhibited locally at Goodyear Arts, LaCa Projects, Sozo Gallery, and The Mint Museum Randolph, as well as nationally and internationally at Lorin Gallery in Los Angeles, Tchotchke Gallery in New York, and Delphian Gallery in London.

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