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

Volume Gallery is pleased to announce&nbsp;What we knew before knowing, a meditation on memory by OOIEE after RO/LU w/ Matt Olson, an exhibition of design to be experienced not as a fixed object but as a transitory state, opening November 7, 2025, from 5 to 8 p.m. There are moments when perception softens and we can sense an object is more than itself.&nbsp;What we knew before knowing&nbsp;is an invitation to perceive in the direction of post-judgement. Here, design can behave more like memory itself: unstable, flickering, and alive in transition. Something is developing. Matt Olson has an “open practice” in which making is thinking, where objects are not invented but found through a sort of inverted dialogue, recognizing, extracting, and recontextualizing—linking and joining concepts, problems, theories, and forms that remain unassuming yet unmistakably charged. Rather than proposing definitive forms, the exhibition assembles an atmosphere of objects in flux. Materials typically associated with utility—stacked cribbing blocks, parking stops, lighting, Plexiglas, and aluminum—behave as memory conductors. Found photographs appear decontextualized, while seating hovers between invitation and apparition. The exhibition seeks relational attention. Each form leans toward the next, resonating with and accompanying one another, which together create a “WE”. Certain motifs emerge from memory, quotations from experience not to be interpreted, but to be felt. A reproduction of a found, signed photograph of Laura Dern from the 1985 film Mask is a gesture of true perception. In the film, her blind character falls in love with a boy who is suffering from a disfiguring genetic condition—not by overlooking his difference, but by perceiving him more clearly than those with sight.&nbsp;More simulacra, a print of a PDF of the books&nbsp;Bunker Archaeology&nbsp;by Paul Virilio and&nbsp;The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger&nbsp;by Luce Irigaray appears—not to be read, but as a living material and conceptual presence. Virilio’s study of wartime bunkers becomes a lens for thinking about how design, function, and strategy differ from experience. These texts resonate with the exhibition’s attention to objects as carriers of memory and thought, existing between use and perception, presence and imagination.&nbsp;After Scott Burton Chair&nbsp;w/ Eric Timothy Carlson and RO/LU is almost 15 years old and has never been shown publicly.&nbsp;Fleabane (Erigeron annuus), a wildflower often dismissed as a weed, helped shape the ideas here. Though cast aside in most landscapes, it holds medicinal value in its stems, revealing usefulness where none was assumed. Like fleabane, the materials in the exhibition—stacked lumber, found images, provisional structures—are invited not to prove themselves, but to be encountered anew.&nbsp;These objects are in a state of becoming—layered and alive. A network rather than a statement, a fog of associations thick enough to move through, but never fully grasp. What emerges is not a collection of things, but a rehearsal of perception itself.&nbsp;This will be the artist’s third exhibition with Volume Gallery, having previously exhibited with various collaborators and under different names.&nbsp;What we knew before knowing&nbsp;will be on view through December 20, 2025&nbsp;OOIEE (Office Of Interior Establishing Exterior)&nbsp;was founded in 2016 by Matt Olson to work on a wide array of projects involving contemporary art and design ranging from furniture, gardens and sculpture and extending to teaching, writing and research. It is a cross-disciplinary, open practice. Previous to founding OOIEE and OOIEE Landscape Office, he was co-founder of RO/LU from 2002-2015 during which time he oversaw work ranging from residential landscape design to residencies in museums. His work has been shown internationally and is in the permanent collection at the Walker Art Center and many esteemed private collections. He was artist-in-residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva FL and has been a visiting artist/lecturer at SCI-Arc, the School of the Art Institute Chicago, the Cranbrook Academy of Art and others. He’s also an on and off Professor in Practice, Architecture at the College of Design at the University of Minnesota.

OOIEE after RO/LU w/ Matt Olson: What We Knew Before Knowing

Oh, you’ve got to come back to the city, the place where you belongOh, you’ve got to come back to the city, the place where you were bornOh, you’ve got to come back to the city, the city of dreams&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;—Marvin Tate, “City Promenade” &nbsp;OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY is a solo exhibition by Theaster Gates. The exhibition opens at GRAY Chicago with a public reception for the artist on October 16, and remains on view through December 20, 2025. This is Gates’s fourth solo exhibition with GRAY. In&nbsp;OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY, Gates brings together a new series of tar paintings, sculpture, and installation to tell an allegory of the city in decay and the potential contained within its ruins. The exhibition’s title comes from a song by Chicago musician and poet Marvin Tate, in which the City, personified as a character, has cleaned up its act and attempts to lure its residents back from the suburbs.&nbsp; Gates’s artistic practice has engaged and reframed the cultural and material history of Chicago as material for the studio. His new installation explores the possibilities that lie within the city’s unattended corners. From his stone repository, Gates has selected a family of marble, granite, scholars’ rocks, and concrete forms that anchor a grid-like installation evoking both the planning logic of cities and the quiet order of memorials. Ceramic works and everyday artifacts rest atop each stone, suggesting the remnants left behind by former inhabitants. Surrounding the sculptural installation is a new series of tar paintings that extend Gates’s patching and bonding strategies. Both sculptural and painterly, these works represent a new direction in the series.&nbsp; In this body of work, Gates wrestles with the burden brought on by aging infrastructure to create new narratives that build on the rich metaphors embedded in his materials—as tools of resistance, signs of excess, and evidence of decline. Developed in conjunction with his exhibition&nbsp;Unto Thee, on view at the Smart Museum of Art through February 22, 2026,&nbsp;OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY&nbsp;offers a profound reflection on Gate’s life as a craftsman, urban planner, and pedagogue. Theaster Gates:&nbsp;OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY&nbsp;to the City opens at GRAY Chicago (2044 West Carroll Avenue) with a public reception on Thursday, October 16, from 5-7 PM, and will be on view through December 20, 2025.&nbsp;&nbsp;ABOUT&nbsp;THEASTER GATESTheaster Gates (b. 1973) currently lives and works in Chicago. Gates creates works that engage with space theory and land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and training in urban planning and preservation, Gates redeems spaces that have been left behind. Known for his recirculation of art world capital, Gates’s practice focuses on the possibility of the “life within things.” His work contends with the notion of Black space as a formal exercise—one defined by collective desire, artistic agency, and the tactics of a pragmatist. Gates has received numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2025), Crystal Award (2020), Nasher Prize (2018), Kurt Schwitters Prize (2017), American Academy of Arts &amp; Sciences Award (2016), and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Social Progress (2015). His work can be found in public collections worldwide, including the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ontario; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois; Tate Gallery, London, England; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California. Gates is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Visual Arts and the Harris School of Public Policy.

Theaster Gates: OH, YOU'VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY

After months of scheming and planning, we're thrilled to announce our year-end exhibition: General Strike. Working in acrylic, oil, ceramic, textiles, fire, pencil, watercolor, and vintage wallpaper, more than 70 artists have conceived of one-of-a-kind matchboxes for this incredible show. What does solidarity mean for the artist? Or, what can art do in a time of crisis? The concept of a general strike is appealing to many advocates and activists because, in the face of oppression or inequality, it’s one of the few options available to the general public. General strikes are sometimes thought of as the “people’s veto,” and for the un-unionized among us, are less about joining our colleagues on the picket lines and more a call for solidarity. They ask us to pinpoint our strengths and identify how our skills can best be of use. Writing about the need and dream of solidarity, activist and novelist Sarah Schulman describes recognition, risk, and creativity as the essential tools in harnessing “the people power necessary to reach the tipping point that transforms lives and, in the most extreme conditions of brutality, actually saves lives.” For artists, these three tenets–recongition, risk, and creativity–are often already the building blocks of a practice. Discerning eyes and trenchant observations, personal sacrifices and provocative positions, combined with a wealth of imagination, are evident in both the studio and the streets. Artists are in many ways world-builders, helping to illuminate what’s previously gone unnoticed or otherwise been thought impossible. In&nbsp;General Strike, we witness more than 70 approaches to a singular object: a large, wooden matchbox. Containing purple-tipped matchsticks, these vessels of potential display a wide array of mediums and methodologies offered by artists across North America. While some revel in whimsy, beauty, and the pleasures of life, others direct us toward bold, decisive action. All, in their own ways, speak to an innate impulse to transform something simple into another thing entirely. Like any crisis, whether tangible or of conscience, what’s required is a variety of responses, the best of which fan the flames of courage and ultimately insist on our shared humanity. The particularities of such approaches–and those stoking their creation–are what make this fight worthwhile, especially when we’re all striking together. General Strike&nbsp;opens on November 21 and runs through December 20. <ul><li>Please&nbsp;<a style="color: inherit;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://luma.com/52i11blf" target="_blank">RSVP to our opening reception</a>, and join us for libations, friends, and s'mores.&nbsp;</li></ul> <ul><li>Interested in work? Join the&nbsp;<a style="color: inherit;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/236793/146322049895236908/share" target="_blank">collector preview</a>.&nbsp;</li></ul>&nbsp;A portion of the proceeds from all work sold in General Strike will be donated to the ACLU.

General Strike

DOCUMENT is delighted to present&nbsp;Things change quickly, Luísa Jacinto’s first solo exhibition in the US. Jacinto’s artistic practice engages with the protocols of the image, narrative fragmentation, and the tension between excess evidence and obscuration. Working with materials such as rubber membrane, thread, fabric, metal, spray, watercolor, loose pigments, she creates works that establish an increasingly fluid boundary between painting, sculpture and installation. For her inaugural exhibition at DOCUMENT Chicago, Luísa Jacinto modifies the viewer’s perception of light and space through an installation of works from two recent series,&nbsp;Strangers&nbsp;and&nbsp;Work in Space. Together, these bodies of work imbue the gallery with layers of colors, bleeding into one another and influencing their surroundings.Suspended from the ceiling, taking over the middle of the space and set against the surrounding walls, several works from the&nbsp;Strangers&nbsp;series—made up of synthetic rubber membranes, folded and draped over suspended LED tubes that act as both support and light source—sway as visitors approach and walk between them.&nbsp;Work in Space&nbsp;is a series that bridges the gaps between drawing, sculpture and installation: colored threads, arranged in a grid-like composition, run across the gallery wall, as if tracing lines with colored pencils.In&nbsp;Things change quickly,&nbsp;Jacinto’s works form a polychromatic cloud where transparency, layering, and spatial relationships are interdependent of the viewer’s trajectory and attention, constantly shifting. Luísa Jacinto (b. 1984, Lisbon, Portugal) lives and works in Lisbon. Her artistic practice engages with the protocols of the image, narratives, fragmentation, and simulation, as well as the tension between excess evidence and obscuration. Jacinto uses different materials – rubber membrane, thread, fabric, metal, spray, watercolor, loose pigments – and supports, which establish an increasingly fluid boundary between painting, sculpture, and installation.

Luísa Jacinto: Things change quickly

In the North Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to announce&nbsp;Shape Acts, an exhibition of new ceramic sculptures and drawings by Magalie Guérin. This is Guérin's fourth solo show at the gallery and her first presentation primarily focused on ceramics. In the domain of linguistics known as speech act theory, language is considered more than just a conveyor of information, it is an action. Speech not only&nbsp;says, it&nbsp;does. So, too, with the forms and textures and colors of Guérin's work. Known initially as a painter, the Marfa, Texas-based artist has been making 3-D work avidly since the start of the pandemic, and this fresh group of tabletop sculptures finds her pushing the limits on morphological invention, introducing new shapes into her vast vocabulary. These pieces are segmented, often with a totemic composition – juxtaposed parts are stacked together and resolve in impossible seeming ways, all within the space of a 12-inch tower. Varying textures are emphasized with different glazes, applied with a painter's hand and eye. Passing references to figures or vessels or creatures or landscapes may appear, but these are equally offset by an overall sense of abstract delight, the surfaces a joy and a mystery, the flashes of bright color intimating something possibly naughty, the crevices and buttes a juicy question mark. Guérin's formal ingenuity allows these talismans a kind of transformative mojo that might spur us to coin "shape act theory" as a new art historical domain. As a 2-D point of comparison with her ceramics, Guérin has chosen to show a suite of drawings made during a 2021 summer ceramic residency at the University of Arkansas.These drawings for Guérin were a playful daily practice done as a way to discover shapes without the pressure of gravity, resulting in vividly colored marker works, hovering like a paper flock of imagined kinfolk for the dimensional works.

Magalie Guérin: Shape Acts

We know you've been enthusiastically waiting all year for our Annual Small Print Show &amp; Holiday Sale to come back! It is the 36th year of this incredible shindig and we are so excited to show new prints created by our CPC members, gallery artists, and faculty. Small prints make the perfect gift for the holidays or for yourself. Artist-made cards, books and other stocking-stuffer goodies will also be available. Sip delicious spiced cider and graze the famous CPC holiday snack table while you peruse the gorgeous array of affordable, small handmade prints from around the globe. A great event the whole family can enjoy. Featured Artists:﻿Grazvyda Andrijauskaite (Lithuania), Joanna Anos, Hiroshi Ariyama, Carlos Barberena, Coco Berkman, Matt Bodett, Bright (Thailand), Deirdre Britt, Molly Brodzeller, Cyan Carey, Ashley Chan, Sanchai Chaiyanan (Thailand), Temjai Cholsiri (Thailand), Alberto Cruz (Mexico), Mehdi Darvishi (Iran), Tony Fitzpatrick, Brenda Friedman, Ann Marie Greenberg, Susan Hall, Olga Hautin, Juana Hernandez, Teresa James, Eric Johnson, Srijai Kantawang (Thailand), Raeleen Kao, Melissa Keller, Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., Scott Kiefer, Jill Kramer, Ammarin Kuntawong (Thailand), Deborah Maris Lader, Kim Laurel, Carrie Lingscheit, Barton Longacre, Amornthep Mahamaet (Thailand), Michelle McCoy, Maria Mungai, Kumi Obata (Japan), Dennis O’Malley, Kathryn Polk, Painted Tongue Press, Steve Prince, Jaco Putker (Netherlands), Emma Radulski, Joel Rendon (Mexico), Artemio Rodriguez (Mexico), Jay Ryan, Seth Savarick, Jeff Sippel, Yuttana Sittikan (Thailand), CHema Skandal!, Sarah Smelser, Starshaped Press, Lauren Steinert, Thessalia Stephanou, Megan Sterling, Jerawit Surtsit (Thailand), Narit Tananon (Thailand), Sanon Tempiem (Thailand), Kitikong Tilokwattanotai (Thailand), Stephanie Toral, Delia Touché, Kouki Tsuritani (Japan), Nicola Villa (Italy), Suttipong Vongson (Thailand), Art Werger, Cleo Wilkinson (Australia), Eric Wilson, Catherine Winings and others.

36th Annual Small Print Exhibition & Holiday Sale

Andy will be in the gallery on Friday, November 21st from 6-8 pm.&nbsp;Newman’s journey to professional artistry is as compelling as his paintings. After spending over 15 years practicing law in Washington, D.C., he discovered his true calling when a friend gifted him painting tools. The choice became clear: he much preferred creating art to office life. At 36, Newman made the leap to become a full-time artist.Working primarily in oil while also exploring pastels, acrylics, and colored pencils, Newman specializes in landscapes, abstracts, and figures—often combining them in striking and creative ways. His artistic vision draws from diverse influences spanning 19th and 20th century American and European masters, including Giorgio Morandi, Edward Hopper, and Maurice de Vlaminck, alongside classical Baroque pioneers Georges de La Tour and Caravaggio. Represented in over ten galleries across Europe and North America, Newman maintains his studio at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, Massachusetts.&nbsp;Whether you’re seeking your first gallery piece or adding to a growing collection, or looking for the best holiday gift ever, these small wonders remind us that profound beauty can come in small proportions. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Bright Lights, Small Treasures

This blockbuster exhibition brings together three distinctive artistic voices, each exploring the natural world through their unique lens and personal journey.&nbsp;From the intimate botanicals of Pierce to the expansive landscapes of Groves and the Eastern-influenced abstractions of Saffer, “Nature’s Voice” celebrates the diverse ways contemporary artists interpret and respond to the beauty of our environment.Christopher Groves brings a profound connection to nature born from his early years exploring the Louisiana bayous and Colorado mountains. Born in Boulder and raised between Louisiana and Colorado, Groves developed his love for the outdoors through countless adventures in forests, waterways, and mountain ranges. His formal training at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy and his role as Lead Landscape Instructor at the Colorado Classical Academy have shaped his masterful approach to plein air painting. As a signature member of both the Oil Painters of America and the American Society of Marine Artists, Groves captures the essence of natural landscapes with both technical precision and emotional depth, creating works that transport viewers directly into the wilderness he knows so intimately.Christopher Pierce is a nationally recognized artist whose stunning florals and still lifes emerge from the bounty of his own gardens. Pierce’s work demonstrates a mature sensitivity and panache that transform everyday botanical subjects into commanding artistic statements. His large-scale floral compositions are particularly renowned for their bold presence and sophisticated handling of light and color. Beyond his celebrated florals, Pierce’s versatility extends to portraiture, figures, and intimate interior scenes, all painted with the same level of technical mastery and artistic vision. Based in Shushan, New York, Pierce’s work reflects a deep understanding of both classical techniques and contemporary sensibilities, making him one of the most sought-after painters in the realm of contemporary realism.H.M. Saffer II presents perhaps the most internationally diverse artistic journey of the three. Beginning his public art career at just six years old in Philadelphia, Saffer’s path led him to Temple University and then to Paris, where he simultaneously pursued economics, performed with legendary French musicians like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour, and operated restaurants in both Paris and Madrid. His artistic evolution took a distinctive turn in the 1980s when he began studying Sumi-e, the Japanese art of black ink painting, eventually traveling to Japan to work with master practitioners. This unique fusion of Eastern and Western techniques defines his current work, creating paintings that blend oriental philosophy with Western artistic traditions. His studies at L’Ecole Des Beaux Arts and his multifaceted career as musician, chef, and artist have culminated in works that reflect a truly global artistic perspective, making him a singular voice in contemporary art.

blockbuster

Currently on display at the Gallery is&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=245f4c99b5&amp;e=d73170d386" target="_blank">15 Years In An Instant</a>&nbsp;a mobile installation of instant Polaroid prints curated by members Alexa Frangos, Susan Isaacson and Kathryn Rodrigues. This project came about as part of Perspective Gallery's recent 15th anniversary celebrations. It honors the work of our many current and past members in a tangible manifestation of our diverse artistic expression.&nbsp;15 Years In An Instant&nbsp;also marks time well spent promoting fine art photography within our Chicagoland community. This mobile installation will be on display at the Gallery through December 28, 2025.&nbsp;

15 Years In An Instant

Virtual Artists’ Talk:&nbsp;Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 7 PM<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=cfc9476def&amp;e=49b9939ea4" target="_blank">Register here</a>Perspective Gallery presents&nbsp;Grand Vistas: Intimate Views, a new exhibit by members&nbsp;Frank Monnelly&nbsp;and&nbsp;Jane Feely. While each photographer takes us on a journey, the striking contrast comes in how they view their respective destinations.&nbsp;Monnelly brings us&nbsp;Denali: Sublime Majesty, aerial photography which captures the scale, grandeur and elegance of the highest mountain peak in North America. Shot from a Cessna 185, the spirit of Denali is revealed in a cathedral of stone and ice. During the show, Monnelly will also premiere a video on aerial photography made in collaboration with Alex Joseph Hansen and Alexander Marvin.

Frank Monnelly: Denali: Sublime Majesty

Virtual Artists’ Talk:&nbsp;Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 7 PM<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=cfc9476def&amp;e=49b9939ea4" target="_blank">Register here</a> Perspective Gallery presents&nbsp;Grand Vistas: Intimate Views, a new exhibit by members&nbsp;Frank Monnelly&nbsp;and&nbsp;Jane Feely. While each photographer takes us on a journey, the striking contrast comes in how they view their respective destinations.&nbsp;Monnelly brings us&nbsp;Denali: Sublime Majesty, aerial photography which captures the scale, grandeur and elegance of the highest mountain peak in North America. Shot from a Cessna 185, the spirit of Denali is revealed in a cathedral of stone and ice. During the show, Monnelly will also premiere a video on aerial photography made in collaboration with Alex Joseph Hansen and Alexander Marvin.&nbsp;In Japan: With A Beginner’s Mind, Feely embraces the Zen Buddhism concept of “Shoshin”, which encourages a sense of openness and curiosity, approaching life with a childlike vision. Her images invite you to get close to the details of this fascinating country, to find joy in even the smallest of experiences.﻿

Jane Feely: In Japan: With a Beginner's Mind

The new exhibition, featuring over forty paintings, is on view in our Glencoe gallery through December 31st.Rodger Bechtold's work captures the Midwest landscape in an expressive, painterly style that blurs the line between realism and abstraction. His compositions, filled with vibrant color and seemingly effortless brushstrokes, offer a unique sense of warmth, joy and spaciousness that extends beyond the canvas. Mary Jo O’Gara’s paintings are a study in harmonious layers of color, texture and light. Intentionally uncomplicated and fresh, her richly textured compositions of barns, outbuildings and pastoral landscapes reflect a sense of nostalgia, connection, and space found in her Midwest surroundings.

Rodger Bechtold & Mary Jo O'Gara: A Sense of Place

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://addingtongallery.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2dac418422cee01053cdde573&amp;id=ee7fedbd55&amp;e=d87d823438" target="_blank">Visit the gallery at www.addingtongallery.com</a>

Susan Kraut and Karen Perl: Spaces Between

Faceted Fiber, curated by Marci Rubin, showcases art involving diverse discourse and techniques of fiber or textile-based artworks. Focusing on the materials and process as part of the artworks’ significance, this exhibition emphasizes the artistic and aesthetic value of a fiber-based project over its utility.By reclaiming and celebrating textile arts in the 1970’s, feminist artists challenged the established art/craft binary. These inspiring artists employed techniques and actions such as sewing, quilting, macrame, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, rug-making, and basket weaving into their work, thrusting them into the realm of fine art. Artists such as Sheila Hicks, Bisa Butler, Judy Chicago, Faith Ringold, and Magdalena Abakanowicz, paved the way for the acceptance of non-traditional artistic practices and perspectives.Image: Lacy Bohannon – White Bird, Cotton, Polyester, Embroidery Thread, 36 x 24, 2024

Faceted Fiber

Marshall Allen, 99, Astronaut&nbsp;is centered around Marshall Allen, world renowned free and avant-garde jazz musician and current leader of the legendary&nbsp;Sun Ra Arkestra, of which he has been a continual member since 1958. Ari Benjamin Meyers composed two original scores for Allen to interpret, inviting him to engage, through music, in an intimate conversation about the spontaneity of music-making, the rigors of rehearsal, and the potentiality of collaboration. On the brink of his one hundredth birthday, he interprets Meyers’ composition on the alto saxophone, and turns the occasional memory lapse into prompts for improvisation, exposing both his frail age and his brilliant virtuosity. Telling a musical and visual story of transformation from the earthly to the otherworldly, the work transcends temporality and place and pays homage both to Allen’s century-long life lived through music and to Sun Ra’s revolutionary musical vision and utopian politics, which saw in the unknown of sonic experimentation and the vastness of the universe the possibility of a transformed present and radically different future. –Text courtesy&nbsp;Esther Schipper Berlin and&nbsp;Fondazione In Between Art Film&nbsp;

Ari Benjamin Myers Marshall Allen, 99, Astronaut

In the North Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to announce&nbsp;Shape Acts, an exhibition of new ceramic sculptures and drawings by Magalie Guérin. This is Guérin's fourth solo show at the gallery and her first presentation primarily focused on ceramics.\In the domain of linguistics known as speech act theory, language is considered more than just a conveyor of information, it is an action. Speech not only&nbsp;says, it&nbsp;does. So, too, with the forms and textures and colors of Guérin's work. Known initially as a painter, the Marfa, Texas-based artist has been making 3-D work avidly since the start of the pandemic, and this fresh group of tabletop sculptures finds her pushing the limits on morphological invention, introducing new shapes into her vast vocabulary. These pieces are segmented, often with a totemic composition – juxtaposed parts are stacked together and resolve in impossible seeming ways, all within the space of a 12-inch tower. Varying textures are emphasized with different glazes, applied with a painter's hand and eye. Passing references to figures or vessels or creatures or landscapes may appear, but these are equally offset by an overall sense of abstract delight, the surfaces a joy and a mystery, the flashes of bright color intimating something possibly naughty, the crevices and buttes a juicy question mark. Guérin's formal ingenuity allows these talismans a kind of transformative mojo that might spur us to coin "shape act theory" as a new art historical domain. As a 2-D point of comparison with her ceramics, Guérin has chosen to show a suite of drawings made during a 2021 summer ceramic residency at the University of Arkansas.These drawings for Guérin were a playful daily practice done as a way to discover shapes without the pressure of gravity, resulting in vividly colored marker works, hovering like a paper flock of imagined kinfolk for the dimensional works. <a style="background-color: rgb(67, 67, 67); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:sophie@corbettvsdempsey.com?subject=Preview%20Request%3A%20Magalie%20Gu%C3%A9rin%2C%20Shape%20Acts" target="_blank">PREVIEW REQUEST</a>

Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present&nbsp;Daily Forecasts: July 19th-October 14th, 2020, an exhibition of new works by Sadie Benning. This is the artist's first show at CvsD and debut gallery exhibition in Chicago.Benning presented&nbsp;Shared Eye&nbsp;at the Renaissance Society in 2016, and they lived in Chicago for an extensive period, during which their work as a video artist gained international recognition. This show introduces a new body of work in watercolor made daily during the pandemic, each painting based on Benning's preparatory collages. This routine image-making practice grew into a series of chronologically sequenced works, all of them modest in scale but packing an immense amount of emotion and visual complexity into its diminutive frame. The title work of the show consists of 31 of these miraculous Covid microcosms. SADIE BENNING:I started making watercolors during the Covid lockdown in July of 2020. What first began as experiments became Daily Forecasts. The idea was to make a portrait of the day—to take the temperature of that particular moment,&nbsp;and have a record. The process involved clearing my mind—trying to get a psychic read of the day I was inhabiting—and writing down words that came to me—words I wasn’t logically thinking—language that came from somewhere else. And then I would search online using those words—creating a database of found digital images, the source material being anything from a family snapshot to a news photograph to a press image.I made mock ups—many trial collages from these photographic images before settling on one, then painting the image using watercolors on paper. All works are intimate, postcard or paperback book sized, appealing to analogue senses while being informed by technology and the internet.I used my intuition to create these works—but I’m also invoking the intuition of the viewer—I’m inviting that. I think it’s political to have an intuition—to listen to yourself—and also to listen to others—what others are feeling or thinking—and what’s happening around you—and what might happen in the future if you don't pay attention, if you don't listen.All images and all art contains a subconscious space—and you can alwaysinuit it and feel it and interpret it. But what I’m doing is bringing that concept to the surface—visually. The words which prompted each painting disappear into the work but they do also persist in some way—wordlessly, the ghost of them remains legible.There’s honestly a little bit of irony in the idea of trying to capture a day. A day is porous, its liquid, it’s slipping away. And if you think about the whole planet—the “day” has multiple time zones and it’s inhabited by so many experiences. I can't capture that. And the day is based on a calendar which is centered around work and capitalism—and not about a subconscious time space. And so I’m not attempting to depict the day for the whole world, it's fragments within fragments—it's trippy and it's one read. It's a portion—even the scale of these paintings reflect that—they are small and cognitive and cropped. They suggest a piece of something much more vast.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:sophie@corbettvsdempsey.com?subject=Preview%20Request%3A%20Sadie%20Benning%2C%20Daily%20Forecasts" target="_blank">PREVIEW REQUEST</a> Image: Sadie Benning,&nbsp;Daily Forecasts: July 19th - October 14th, 2020,&nbsp;2020,&nbsp;watercolor on paper,&nbsp;31 individual works, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches each,&nbsp;signed and dated on verso.&nbsp;

Sadie Benning Daily Forecasts: July 19th - October 14th, 2020

Begins Dec 5: Michael Cuadrado Gonzalez

Michael Cuadrado Gonzalez

Sebastian Thomas

This Fall, the&nbsp;Elmhurst Art Museum&nbsp;presents&nbsp;Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust,&nbsp;the first major museum exhibition for Chicago-based artists Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust. Lake and Faust are mutually inspired by the Japanese principle of&nbsp;Shakkei&nbsp;(“borrowed scenery”), a design philosophy that incorporates organic features and architectural designs. The artists’ kaleidoscopic works use color and pattern to create immersive optical experiences, interpreting the Eastern concept broadly as a metaphor for empathy, adaptability, and the ability to hold multiple viewpoints simultaneously. The exhibition will feature recent large-scale artworks by Lake and Faust in separate galleries, as well as a collaborative new work combining their design languages. The exhibition is curated by Liz Chilsen, Manager of Exhibitions &amp; Collections, and will be on view at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst, from September 4, 2025 to January 4, 2026. For this exhibition, each artist will bring their own perspective to the concept of&nbsp;Shakkei, reflecting their unique experiences and history. While Lake’s imagery is based on the symbolic floral motifs found in antique Japanese girls’ kimonos, Faust often incorporates the surroundings of the project or exhibition venue into his “wallworks,” creating site-specific perspectives manipulated from digital photographs. The dialogue between artists addresses the intersection of the patterns of everyday life and cultural and social histories. Shakkei&nbsp;opening reception begins September 5 at 6PM with VIP &amp; Members preview.&nbsp;Doors to the public open at 7PM.Jazz concert with Yoko Noge&nbsp;7:30-8:30.&nbsp;FREE for Members,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://elmhurstartmuseum.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=79cd6ec4fe739f4c6b4128435&amp;id=5a5e07054e&amp;e=9f943455be" target="_blank">RSVP here</a>. Non-members can purchase tickets online.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://elmhurstartmuseum.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=79cd6ec4fe739f4c6b4128435&amp;id=16654985fd&amp;e=9f943455be" target="_blank">SHAKKEI RECEPTION TICKETS &amp; INFO</a> Allison Peters Quinn,&nbsp;Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Elmhurst Art Museum, said, “Shakkei&nbsp;highlights cross-cultural exchange by showcasing Japanese principles of landscape design and its influence on contemporary art and architecture. The artists are longtime admirers of each other’s work and decided to collaborate for the first time on a new installation for this show.” She added, “Inspired by our McCormick House designed by Mies van der Rohe, Mayumi and Bob have pushed themselves to consider how their work creates vistas and portals that heighten our understanding of the world around us.&nbsp;We are excited to be the first to present this incredible blend of art practices rooted in nature, pattern, and play, that turn the everyday into an extraordinary, immersive sculptural experience.” ABOUT THE ARTISTSWorking in the space between art and design,&nbsp;Bob Faust&nbsp;crafts artwork with typography at its core and viscerality on its surface. Faust has over 30 years of experience as the principle and creative director of the eponymously named cultural branding studio, Faust. He makes his work with purpose first—to inform, empower and/or instigate in the service and celebration of human difference. Text, patterns, and the ideas of surprise and discovery emerge as throughlines throughout his conceptual art practice that defies categorization and genre. Faust has been recognized nationally and internationally for his inimitable creativity through many prestigious honors including a University of Illinois, College of Fine &amp; Applied Arts, 2022 Distinguished Legacy Award and City of Chicago, 2022 Mayor’s Medal of Honor. Exhibitions have included Mass MoCA BY The Numb3r5 (Mass MoCA), For And Nor But Or Yet So (Poetry Foundation), WA/ONDER (167 Green), with all, and still... (The Peninsula Chicago), Rapt on the Mile (The Magnificent Mile Association), Ways and Means (Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and The Chicago Transit Authority), About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art (Wrightwood 659), Great Ideas of Humanity: Out of the Container (Chicago Design Museum), guilty / Innocent (MASS MoCA); Unfolded: Made with Paper (Chicago Design Museum), Betweens (Riverside Arts Center), and CHGO DSGN (Chicago Cultural Center). In addition to his own work, Faust is also the professional and personal partner of artist Nick Cave. Together they founded the non-for-profit Facility: a multi-use creative space in Chicago that seeks to build community and change the world through art and design. Mayumi Lake&nbsp;is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary. With a foundation in photography, she integrates digital images of nature and Japanese textiles into her collages, sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand the narrative of the work and form conceptual layers. Lake’s artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, Asia Society, Art in General, and Artists Space in New York; Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City; Fotografie Forum International in Frankfurt; Cornelius Pleser Galerie in Munich; Galleria PaciArte in Brescia; FOTOAMERICA in Santiago; Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam; and the Setouchi Triennale in Takamatsu. She has published two monographs, Poo-Chi and Ex Post Facto, with Nazraeli Press. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)/City of Chicago, the McCormick Place Art Collection/Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), Video Art World, the Joy of Giving Something Foundation, and Facebook. Lake received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust&nbsp;is presented as part of the sixth edition of the&nbsp;Chicago Architecture Biennial. Running&nbsp;September 19, 2025 - February 28, 2026&nbsp;at locations throughout Chicago,&nbsp;SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change&nbsp;explores timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design.&nbsp;Learn more at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/" target="_blank">chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org</a>This exhibition is sponsored by Wintrust Bank with additional support from the Illinois Arts Council, Discover DuPage, Enjoy Illinois and anonymous donors. 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>.

Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust

Dec 10 - Jan 4, 2026: Luminous Mosaics, Taiwanese&nbsp;Artist Kai-Chun Chiang

Luminous Mosaics, Taiwanese Artist Kai-Chun Chiang

SAWHORSE is pleased to present Great Mud Flood, a group exhibition featuring work by Ryan Richey, Yigit Ural, Fallon Wrede, Pedro Albertini, Amy Pearl Lang, and Jackson Daughety.

Great Mud Flood

Thoughtfully designed, One of a Kind Art Gifts

Gallery Seven Holiday Gift Show

Arts of Life is pleased to announce our next exhibition&nbsp;Hail Mary,&nbsp;guest curated by&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 112, 168);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://margaretcrowley.com/" target="_blank">Margaret Crowley</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 112, 168);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/brozgold/?hl=en" target="_blank">Tim Callahan</a>.Hail Mary&nbsp;is an exhibition about sport. It examines the complexity and inherent spirituality of participating, watching and being a fan of any sport. James Naismith’s Guiding Principles of Basket-Ball, 1891(Glossed by Dave Hickey)1)&nbsp;&nbsp;There must be a ball; it should be large.(This in prescient expectation of Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving, whose hands would reinvent basketball as profoundly as Jimi Hendrix’s hands reinvented rock-and-roll.)2)&nbsp;There shall be no running with the ball.&nbsp;(Thus mitigating the privileges of owning portable property. Extended ownership of the ball is a virtue in football. Possession of the ball in basketball is never ownership; it is always temporary and contingent upon your doing something with it.)3)&nbsp;No man on either team shall be restricted from getting the ball at any time that it is in play.(Thus eliminating the job specialization that exists in football, by whose rules only those players in “skill positions” may touch the ball. The rest just help. In basketball there are skills peculiar to each position, but everyone must run, jump, catch, shoot, pass, and defend.)4)&nbsp;Both teams are to occupy the same area, yet there is to be no personal contact.(Thus no rigorous territoriality, nor any rewards for violently invading your opponents’ territory unless you score. The model for football is the drama of adjacent nations at war. The model for basketball is the polyglot choreography of urban sidewalks.)5)&nbsp;The goal shall be horizontal and elevated.(The most Jeffersonian principle of all: Labor must be matched by aspiration. To score, you must work your way down court, but you must also elevate! Ad astra.)&nbsp;Margaret Crowley&nbsp;(b. Ottawa, IL) is an artist&nbsp;living and working in Chicago. Crowley founded Produce Model Gallery in 2016.Timothy Callahan&nbsp;(b. Chicago, IL) co-organized Produce&nbsp;Model Gallery with Crowley from 2020 to 2024.

Calendar

Chicago Gallery News