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

PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN EVENING RECEPTION ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 14TH FROM 6 - 8 PMSPARKLING WINE, SMALL BITES AND&nbsp;GORGEOUS ART WILL BE SERVEDRosenthal Fine Art is pleased to present eleven glorious paintings as a retrospective of Raffael's later works from1985 to 2020 -- the year before his death in 2021.&nbsp;In an interview with Betsy Dillard Stroud, Raffael reveals his process as almost a conversation with mystery. Nancy Hoffman, a well-respected New York dealer who knew Raffael well, was asked by Stroud how she would place Raffael in the contemporary art scene.&nbsp;She replied: "I don't think about him in the contemporary scene. It's not a relevant question, because he addresses the issue of beauty. He celebrates nature and stays true to his vision. No one uses watercolor the way he does."Clearly, Joseph Raffael transcends labeling, which underscores what Kierkegaard wrote: "Labeling me, negates me."As Betsy Dillard Stroud left Joseph Raffael's world she recalls, "When I think of Raffael's paintings, forms dissolve revealing a new universe of light charged with a confluence of incredible colors perhaps not found in anyone's vocabulary, and I remember what the great theologian Thomas Merton wrote: "The last great mystery to be solved will be the mystery of color."Surely, the answer to that mystery lies in the paintings of Joseph Raffael as he moves toward the light.

Joseph Raffael: Moving Toward the Light – A Retrospective

Flying Kites in a Windless World is composed of artworks from Filley’s projects over the past eight years. The works are inspired by a wide range of influences, including Emily Dickinson’s poem “We Send the Wave to Find the Wave,” drawings and weavings by Lenore Tawney, quilts passed down through generations, migratory patterns of birds, the shifting light of sunrise and sunset, and other investigations into the built and natural world. Filley generates her paper-based works using a methodical, repetitive process which functions as an act of discovery for the artist and a form of ritual that opens a pathway to the spiritual. Doing the same things over and over again--dot making, stitching, blending pencil marks—facilitates a close analysis of the how and why of doing. Repetition also allows for pattern to emerge and invites the question of how something might grow, shift or evolve over time. For Filley, moving through the world is an act of gathering disparate pieces—of “massing stardust,” in the artist’s words—that slowly cohere as experience is filtered into understanding. Her drawings, which can be likened to imagined cosmic maps, become the conduit for exploring an aspect of existence that is collective rather than individual. Beyond capturing a single moment, Filley’s art practice seeks to bridge time, expand an understanding of the present and come into harmony with that which is beyond the self. Merging sacred geometry and geometric abstraction with the error and energy of the human hand, her artwork expresses how the act of making transforms the body into a portal through which something unknown can pass.

Vanessa Filley: Flying Kites in a Windless World

Japeth Mennes: I will always love ewe

Featuring one-of-a-kind fine art prints, Chicago Printmakers Collaborative is displaying a gallery show focused on the monoprint &amp; monotype. Come to the Reception on Thursday, April 2nd from 5-8pm for a first look at this selection of gorgeous prints.&nbsp; <a href="https://chicagoprintmakers.com/print-making-gallery-chicago/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monoprint: one of a kind</a>&nbsp;will be on view through mid July, 2026.

Monoprint: One of a Kind

From Cobalt to Indigo: The Power of Blue in East Asia&nbsp;is an exploration of one of the most enduring and influential colors in global art history. Spanning centuries of Chinese and Japanese creativity, the exhibition traces how the color blue—once among the rarest and most prized pigments—shaped artistic innovation, cultural exchange, and aesthetic identity across East Asia.From the luminous depths of cobalt-painted porcelain to the brilliance of carved lapis lazuli and the bold Prussian blue of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, this exhibition brings together works that illuminate the remarkable journey of blue across materials and artistic traditions. From Cobalt to Indigo will explore symbolism, craftsmanship, technological advancements, and cross-cultural influences. It showcases blue as both a material and an evolving metaphor. This exhibition invites audiences to see a familiar color anew and to experience the profound beauty and cultural resonance of blue in East Asian art.<a href="https://www.kiarts.org/events/tag/cobalt/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to see all events in connection with this exhibition</a>.

From Cobalt to Indigo: The Power of Blue in East Asia

Sawhorse is thrilled to present the third iteration of The Museum of I Love You So Much, a curatorial project organized by Los Angeles-based artist and writer Hannah Tishkoff. Exhibiting artists include Deen Babakhyi, Megan Lee, Jenna Beasley, Flannery McDonnell, Jerry Bleem, Tatiana Sky, Cookie Bunk, Amy Stober, Julia Yerger, and Jack Kearney Photo by Deen Babakhyi

The Museum of I Love You So Much #3

<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 a major solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Alison Ruttan. Visualizing the catastrophic impact of global warming on coastal communities, the immersive installation places visitors at the center of a submerged suburban neighborhood to invite reflections on the climate crisis. On view from&nbsp;April 4-July 12, 2026, the expansive exhibition takes up 2300 sq. ft. gallery space with over 160 cast ceramic forms. A free public opening reception with the artist will take place on&nbsp;Saturday, April 4, 2026 from 1-4 p.m.Throughout her career, Ruttan has created many visual representations of massive traumatic events, such as the Gombe Chimpanzee War, the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, the “Highway of Death” in Kuwait, and the Syrian Civil War.&nbsp;For Ruttan, the labor involved in rendering these events visible is an attempt to emphasize their urgency for herself and viewers. The title&nbsp;The Paradox of Inaction&nbsp;refers to a mistaken belief that doing nothing is risk-free, while in reality, failing to act has consequences, increases risks, and limits ways forward. She hopes the exhibition, which took more than two years to complete, is a call to action for shifting unsustainable habits and preventing further inaction toward climate issues.Composed of over 160 cast ceramic forms, this installation is arranged in low-lying platforms throughout the gallery. At first glance, the ceramic forms appear abstract; seen collectively, they create the illusion of a submerged suburban neighborhood. Works from Ruttan’s earlier series&nbsp;High Water&nbsp;(2023 - 2024), a group of miniature ceramic sculptures of flooded homes, will be on view on the second floor of the Art Center, complementing the large-scale installation on the first floor. With an otherworldly appearance, the glazed surfaces of the ceramics are suggestive of pools of blackwater and mildewed walls.Ruttan shares why she believes an immersive art installation is a powerful tool for change:&nbsp;“To know something is not the same as comprehending it. I work with the belief that art can sometimes do a better job of convincing than facts alone. In looking at a work of art, we allow our intuitive thinking to mingle with factual thinking. We go back and forth between the contemplation of the physical objects' form and the suggested context that exists outside the art gallery. In bridging these different ways of thinking, we often feel we are coming closer to the truth”.This exhibition is part of an ongoing annual series of large-scale artworks commissioned by Hyde Park Art Center, which in the past included new works by Edra Soto, Faheem Majeed, Lan Tuazon, and Yasmin Spiro, among others. A series of public programs will offer opportunities for audiences to further engage with the exhibition.&nbsp;Alison Ruttan: The Paradox of Inaction&nbsp;is generously supported by the Graham Foundation.ABOUT THE ARTISTAlison Ruttan is a project-based artist whose work focuses on topical investigations. Her work has been exhibited in Chicago at the Riverside Arts Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Weinberg Newton Gallery, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Document Gallery, among others. Nationally, her work has been presented at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Bentonville, AR;&nbsp;Elmhurst Art Museum, IL; Kent State University Art Museum, OH; The Frist Museum, TN; and The Drawing Center, NY. International presentations of Ruttan’s work have included Galerie Wit in Wageningen, Netherlands, and Rocket Gallery in London, UK. Ruttan has received awards and residencies from the Illinois Arts Council, Jerome Foundation, Art &amp; Technology Residency; Wexner Museum, Artists Residency; and Wild Animal Park. She is an associate professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught for over 25 years.

Alison Ruttan: The Paradox of Inaction

Weeds Grow in All Directions&nbsp;is an exhibition of Cydney Lewis's collage works and large-scale assemblages. Using everyday materials found in her daily life–plastic bags, packing paper, magazine cutouts, as well as rhinestones and textiles–Lewis creates otherworldly landscapes that prompt meditation on the destruction and resilience of the natural world. The works in the exhibition reward close looking—to find the extraordinary in the overlooked, to reconnect with energies around us, and to feel the pulse of our shared ecology through playful wonder and poignant reflection. In this body of work, the resilient weed is both metaphor and guide, challenging our perceptions of the disregarded and revealing the quiet spirit inherent in all natural matter. In Lewis's work, the material world intersects with the realm of elemental spirits, creating a layered tapestry of human emotion and urgent ecological awareness.

Cydney M. Lewis: Weeds Grow in All Directions

Opening Reception for Part 1: Saturday, May 2, 2026, 4pm–7pm&nbsp;Curator Talk: 4pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Palomar&nbsp;is a group exhibition about watching the sky, something that appears deceptively simple. Featuring twenty-eight artists, it unfolds in two parts, each five weeks long. Some works remain in place while others come and go, this encounter in time acting like a double exposure. Gradually, the familiar act of looking up spills over into a sense of life that is more layered and complex, or even contradictory. It turns out there is a lot at stake in the space above us.&nbsp;Decades ago, after the launch of the first satellite into orbit, humans had big dreams of leaving the Earth. Politicians, poets, and scientists made public comments in this spirit. Today it’s mostly billionaires who talk of escape, or of mining the planets out there. The rest of us look to the sky from the ground as life carries on. An earlier age of optimism around space exploration and human progress has given way to a new era, as the stars fade from view in our cities, new technologies emerge with unsettling effects, and those in power surveil from above. Through it all, the sky is a steady presence. The sun rises and sets. The moon, too. The stars come out, where you can see them. We organize our lives by these patterns. They infuse our concepts, our sense of time, and our language, even when they’re not on our minds.Part 1 of&nbsp;Palomar&nbsp;introduces certain celestial rhythms and cycles, while thinking about astronomy and other forms of observation in everyday life. It also begins to draw out experiences of time, as it is marked, measured, and perceived. Part 2 brings into view changing relationships with technology and the militarization of the skies. Both parts are shadowed by the question of what one sees and what one doesn’t, and the roles that images play, especially photographs, often wrapped up with the comforts and discomforts of distance.&nbsp;The exhibition borrows its title from the name of an observatory on a California mountaintop, which once had the largest optical telescope in the world. It lost that distinction in 1976, but it is still used to study the stars. In the eighties, Italo Calvino wrote a book about a man who shares his name with that place:&nbsp;Mr. Palomar, a seeker of the cosmic in the commonplace and an unflagging, if absentminded, observer. Taken together, these two touchstones evoke different kinds of observation and attention.&nbsp;Looking overhead can be a way to understand one’s place in the world, as it has been for thousands of years. Given the many ways people watch the sky or look to the cosmos, from scientific study to the habits of daily life, there are just as many different things to think or feel. The movement of the heavenly bodies offers a measure of continuity in the face of destabilizing change; the view above can be a source of solace, a realm of startling beauty, a reminder of something larger than oneself. The sky can also be a dark premonition, a site of violence or grief, a reminder of what there is to lose, or for many what is already gone. Sometimes it’s all of this at once.Curated by Karsten Lund.&nbsp;Artists featured:Part 1 (May 2–June 7, 2026)&nbsp;Darren Almond, Sarah &amp; Joseph Belknap, Myriam Boulos, Vija Celmins, Paul Fägersköld, Pierre Huyghe, Rinko Kawauchi, Jason Lazarus, Tony Lewis, Aspen Mays, Eadward Muybridge, John Opera, Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Kathleen Ryan, Carrie Schneider, Heji Shin, Erin ShirreffPart 2 (June 10–July 13, 2026)&nbsp;Sarah &amp; Joseph Belknap, Myriam Boulos, Vija Celmins, Cynthia Daignault, Paul Fägersköld, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sebastian Jefford, Jordan Kantor, Tony Lewis, Eadweard Muybridge, John Opera, Trevor Paglen, Torbjørn Rødland, Kathleen Ryan, Heji Shin, Erin Shirreff, Alec Soth, Shomei Tomatsu, Samira Yamin&nbsp;Videos online&nbsp;(Parts 1 &amp; 2)Allora &amp; Calzadilla, Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Simon Starling, Alice Wang&nbsp;CreditsLead support for this exhibition is provided by School Museum Fund, The Hees Family.&nbsp;Friends of Palomar Patron Circle: Maria Christina &amp; Guy-Karim Caland Puymartin, and Zach Smith.&nbsp;Renaissance Society programs are supported by Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.&nbsp;EventsOpening Reception (Part 1)Sat, May 2, 4–7pmTalk at 4PM between curator Karsten Lund and Steven L. Bridges (MSU Broad Art Museum)&nbsp;Walkthrough (Part 1)Sun, May 17, 1PMLed by Karsten Lund&nbsp;WorkshopSun, May 17, 3PMLed by Karsten Lund and Joshi Radin Flores&nbsp;Performance: Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie StewartSat, Jun 13, 4PM&nbsp;Opening Reception (Part 2)Sat, Jun 13, 5–7PM&nbsp;Walkthrough (Part 2)Thu, Jun 18, 6:30PMLed by Karsten Lund&nbsp;Performance Lecture: Day &amp; Night with Sarah &amp; Joseph Belknap&nbsp;Sun, Jun 21, 12PM &amp; 10PM12PM Logan Center for the Arts, Screening Room10PM Midway Plaisance Winter GardenVisit&nbsp;<a href="http://renaissancesociety.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information.&nbsp;

Palomar (Part 2)

Third Wednesday: Music in Motion from Ireland to Chicago is inspired by Ink &amp; Outrage: 18th-Century Satirical Prints in London &amp; Dublin. This program features the interplay of the Irish harp and the accordion.<a href="https://driehausmuseum.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=32343bbcd4e3063e18cdf64bf&amp;id=9111c600f4&amp;e=d1db3f815c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TICKETS</a>

Third Wednesday: Music in Motion from Ireland to Chicago

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1780368849/rpww4hjwgub9mky3yj2h.jpg" width="560"> She Loved the water...&nbsp;her father, Lt. Commander Henry Livermore Abbott, was a sailor, a decorated submarine captain&nbsp;in the First World War and a Naval advisor to the FDR administration during WWII. As an introduction, I've written a&nbsp;little remembrance&nbsp; The Last Time I Saw Mary… In May of 2019 I traveled to the Long Island enclave of Southampton for my annual visit with Mary Abbott. I’d been making this pilgrimage for about 15 years, where I would visit with Mary in her tidy ranch house at 125 Corrigan Street. We would catch up on life, go to lunch, sit in her garden, have some wine&nbsp;and spend time mucking about in her studio. There, I would pick out paintings to send back to Chicago and unearth works on paper from her disarrayed flat file drawers. These were generally unsigned and I would sit her down, put a pencil in her hand and make her sign away. Mary didn’t have a commercial bone in her body and did not enjoy signing her work. She had horrible handwriting, was dyslexic and had a hard time fitting her name in the space provided. Very often works received her scribble only on the day they left her studio. Often I would be soundly reprimanded for forcing her to do this small but heinous task:&nbsp;"Oh, just leave me alone!" &nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1780368849/dxkdbofoel7gvzejukmz.jpg" width="560">I Am a Sailor’s Daughterwatercolor on paper9 x 12 inchessigned at lower right; signed and titled on frame backing board, estate stamped verso#11580 Mary loved to paint watery watercolors of the ocean, sky, and clouds, often from a perch on the beach at Southampton.&nbsp;On this visit I arrived to find Mary still in bed, which was not particularly unusual as she liked to lounge around but I was told she had been spending much more time there. Wanda, her housekeeper, was puttering about the kitchen and her Girl Friday, Mary Stubelek, arrived soon after. She began filling me in on Mary Abbott’s slowly declining health — she was 98 and had heart problems. But, she was perky and chatty, though there would be no lunch date on this visit. So I sat with her in the bedroom looking out the window at her lovely garden, listening to the birds scold an errant squirrel. After a while Mary S, and I wandered away to talk privately about the fact that Mary A. was not going to live forever and we should put some thought into what comes next. We knew Mary had a will, prepared years before, but as far as we knew it had never really been completed or possibly even signed. She had no children and, really, no heirs. In 2007 Abbott had asked me to look into setting up some sort of trust or foundation that, after her death, could use the proceeds from her estate to support emerging women artists. It was a wonderful idea and I contacted Artadia, the non-profit grant-maker in New York, about partnering in such an endeavor. They were very interested and we organized a couple of meetings with attorneys and stakeholders in nearby Jamesport. Mary was happy and excited about this and just as things began to gel I received a phone call from the lawyer in New York City who, years before, had written her original will. This fellow, who I’m not naming, came on like a rabid dog saying if I knew what was good for me I’d mind my own damn business and leave Mary Abbott’s affairs alone! Full stop! Well… he scared the hell out of me, so we stopped. This was both disappointing and embarrassing,&nbsp;as I had to contact everyone and apologize for wasting their time. Worst of all, her will remained unresolved, as far as we knew, and we assumed that when she would eventually pass things would be a mess. This visit lasted a few more days. Mary Stubelek and I worked on organizing her studio, sorting through piles of blank paper and unfinished drawings… investigating long ignored rolls of canvas, and generally trying to bring some order to her 98 years of life. We poked around an off-site storage unit but it was just too much to tackle. A&nbsp;few days later I said my goodbyes and left Corrigan Street, fairly certain I wouldn’t see Mary Abbott again. She died two months later on August 23, 2019. &nbsp;Sure enough, what followed was a mess. Another attorney, and old friend of Mary’s, acted as her executor and I did not envy him the chore. He allowed me, working with Mary Stubelek, to continue representing the estate while he began sorting things out. I was well treated and appreciated the opportunity to keep working with Mary’s wonderful legacy. Eventually, in August of 2020, we were instructed to return everything we had on consignment in Chicago — I think there were about 70 canvases or so and many works on paper.&nbsp;And suddenly, after 19 years, that was that.&nbsp; Since then good things have continued to happen for Mary Lee Abbott. In 2021 we published a 120 page Abbott biography drawing on stories and photos from my nineteen year friendship and interviews with her many friends and colleagues. Her estate found a home with the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, where Mary taught for a decade in the 1970s. Last year Schoelkopf Gallery presented a major Abbott exhibition in New York,&nbsp;To Draw Imagination, and interest in her work has continued to grow.&nbsp; Over the past 25 years we have placed well over 400 Mary Abbott paintings, watercolors and drawings. We have a wide selection of small, watery watercolors such as these 4 x 6 inch works. All are signed or initialed and estate stamped.&nbsp; <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/pcr35qALife?e=4e60073cbe&amp;c2id=4d50cb5e36083b5514fb6b314e231f0b" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(42, 93, 176);" target="_blank">Buy the Biography HERE</a> To view more images of the exhibition<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/bQegXl2WznN?e=4e60073cbe&amp;c2id=4d50cb5e36083b5514fb6b314e231f0b" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(42, 93, 176);" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>

Mary Abbott: I Am a Sailor's Daughter

Martin Wong: Chinatown USA&nbsp;traces the development of the work of the queer painter and poet, highlighting Wong’s connection with the art and&nbsp;culture&nbsp;of&nbsp;Asia,&nbsp;inparticular through&nbsp;his&nbsp;collecting&nbsp;of&nbsp;pre-modern&nbsp;Asian&nbsp;art and antiquities and his explorations of the Chinatowns of New York and San Francisco from 1970 through the 1990s. A large portion of the exhibition is devoted to his Chinatown paintings, which were the subject of a major exhibition titled&nbsp;Chinatown USA&nbsp;presented at P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York City and the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993. These works depict notable architecture such as the Chinese pagoda-style building at 241 Canal Street, iconic actor Bruce Lee and Peking opera performer Mei Lanfang, festivities like the Chinese New Year Parade, and&nbsp;street&nbsp;scenes. The exhibition also explores Wong’s interest in counterculture communities (such as Puerto Rican poets and graffiti artists) and language through his poetry and American Sign Language paintings. The latter are presented alongside a&nbsp;small&nbsp;selection&nbsp;of works by artists of the modern graffiti movement from Wong’s personal&nbsp;collection,&nbsp;which he donatedto&nbsp;the Museum&nbsp;of the City of New York in 1994. Wong died in 1999 at the age of 53 from an AIDS-related illness.&nbsp;Martin Wong: Chinatown USA&nbsp;is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by Halsted A&amp;A Foundation and Gregory R. Miller &amp; Co. Edited by Yasufumi Nakamori, it includes six essays by leading scholars Solomon&nbsp;Adler, Lisa Hsiao Chen, Mark&nbsp;D.&nbsp;Johnson,&nbsp;Vivian&nbsp;Li, Margo Machida, and Lydia Yee.

Martin Wong: Chinatown USA

‘What We Saved: Femmage Revisited’ is a juried exhibition organized by The Gallery of Contemporary Mosaics and the Chicago Collage Community. The included work highlights collage as a uniquely feminine art form of saving, fragmenting, and mending to tell women’s stories.&nbsp;This exhibition aims to honor collage and its history while inspiring contemporary collage artists to reconsider their work through the Femmage framework, which is both openly political and deeply personal.

What We Saved: Femmage Revisited

The Path to Nowhere Errol Ortiz and Stanley Dean Edwards Oliva Gallery presents The Path to Nowhere, a two-person exhibition featuring Errol Ortiz and Stanley Dean Edwards. Bringing together two distinct Chicago-connected artists, the exhibition places Ortiz’s charged, symbol-rich Imagist language in direct conversation with Edwards’s disciplined geometric abstraction. Ortiz’s work moves through current events, social tension, pattern, humor, and unease, while Edwards builds pressure through structure, color, and precise compositional restraint. Together, their work creates a space of visual suspension, where images scatter, forms lock into place, and two very different artistic logics meet in unexpected cohesion.The opening reception will also include a screening of a short documentary on Errol Ortiz by On The Real Film in collaboration with Pentimenti Productions. The film premieres at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on May 26 as part of a series on Chicago artists, with the June 12 reception offering a more intimate opportunity to view the film and meet the artist.

The Path to Nowhere with Errol Ortiz and Stanley Dean Edwards

<a href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/free-and-independent" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Free and Independent: The Declaration of Independence and the Words That Made the United States</a>, features a rare early copy of the Declaration. The exhibition features more than two dozen historic items inviting visitors to survey selected phrases from the Declaration, such as "All Men are created equal," and to consider some of the surprising ideas behind those words. Collection items highlight influential figures such as John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. On display will be the only surviving manuscript copy of John Jay’s&nbsp;Federalist no. 3, one of only five surviving manuscript drafts of any of the Federalist essays. The exhibition is curated by Eric Slauter, Deputy Dean of the Arts and Humanities Division and the College at University of Chicago. Slauter is the author of&nbsp;The State as a Work of Art: The Cultural Origins of the Constitution, essays on the language of rights and equality in early America, and a forthcoming book on the origins, meanings, and afterlives of the Declaration of Independence. The Newberry's copy of the Declaration is a rare broadside from Newport, Rhode Island, mistakenly dated June 13 rather than July 13, 1776, that demonstrates how supporters and opponents of independence might have first encountered the empire-shattering news.&nbsp;Only in August 1776, as the document began to circulate in Europe, did delegates of Congress sign the famous handwritten parchment scroll currently at the National Archives.&nbsp; Other exhibition items include:<ul><li>A 1776 map of America;</li><li>A revolutionary timeline dedicated to Benjamin Franklin;</li><li>One of the first petitions by enslaved people to circulate widely in print;</li><li>Notes of a meeting between members of Congress and representatives of Native nations taken by Thomas Paine;</li><li>The biography of Deborah Sampson, a woman who disguised herself as a man to fight in the army.</li></ul> Free and Independent&nbsp;will be on view in the Hanson Gallery through July 18’s NewberryFest open house celebration, and is part of an array of programs and events related to the 250th&nbsp;anniversary of the Declaration. The Newberry is proud to be a partner in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.il250.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" target="_blank">Illinois America 250</a>, an inclusive, statewide effort to bring together Illinoisans’ diverse perspectives about our history – and our future. Learn more at:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newberry.org/the-newberry-observes-america-250" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" target="_blank">https://www.newberry.org/the-newberry-observes-america-250.</a> Free Public Programs being held along with the exhibition include: <a href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/coffee-nation" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" target="_blank">May 7, 6pm</a>“Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States.” Presenters: Author Michelle McDonald in conversation with curator and scholar Eric Slauter. Coffee Nation challenges traditional interpretations of the American Revolution, as coffee’s spectacular profitability in US markets and popularity on the new nation’s tables by the mid-nineteenth century was the antithesis of independence.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/allen-stephenson-conversation" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" target="_blank">June 6, 2pm</a>Annual Colonial History Program: “The Declaration of Independence.” Discussants: Scholar/author Danielle Allen (Harvard University) and historian Scott Stephenson (Museum of the American Revolution), in partnership with Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Illinois. The discussion will be followed by a book signing of Dr. Allen’s latest book,&nbsp;Radical Duke.&nbsp;Reproduction artifacts from the Museum of the American Revolution will be available for viewing, including a recreation of George Washington’s tent in Washington Square Park, located across the street from the Newberry’s main entrance. <a href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/declaration-reading" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" target="_blank">July 8, 5pm</a>Sharing the Spirit of America: A Statewide &amp; National Reading of the Declaration of Independence Gather with special guests, fellow visitors, and library staff for a live, simultaneous nationwide public reading of the Declaration of Independence with one and all in Chicago and across the country. <a href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/newberryfest-250" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" target="_blank">July 18, 10am</a>NewberryFest: 250 Years of the United States Learn more about the history and legacy of the American Revolution by exploring our collection and try your own hand at historical calligraphy techniques. Celebrate all things Newberry with collection presentations, hands-on activities, tours, a mini used book sale, and so much more at this open house event. Image: Declaration of Independence broadside, Newport, RI: Solomon Southwick, 1776, VAULT Case broadside E221 .U57.

Free and Independent: The Declaration of Independence and the Words That Made the United States

Marking the gallery’s second solo exhibition with Jennifer Rochlin, on view in Chicago from June 6 through July 18, 2026, the presentation will unveil a new body of ceramic vessels and paintings in which personal narrative, memory, and material experimentation are closely interwoven.Returning to the city where she received her MFA in painting in 1999, Rochlin approaches&nbsp;The Horizon Keeps Moving&nbsp;as both a form of return and excavation. The works are shaped by layered impressions of Chicago—its lakefront horizon, the river, its architectural density, and its more intimate geographies of bars, alleys, and domestic thresholds. These elements surface as sculpted anecdotes across ceramic forms, where drawing and surface function as extensions of thought. In this context, the city operates not simply as backdrop but as a structuring logic—one through which memory, subjectivity, and narrative are continuously reassembled.<a href="http://link.marianeibrahim.com/ls/click?upn=u001.QEhnWBve3x4w-2FznpuSOKkHDHeH9lWxp-2BpojXmbdTFEfNIzMO4Fk0hZGVAcuFTnrwh8bO4SorqqInd4p4CD6AREU9uXdzg2BZ6OB0F2jAgIQ-2BzEgmloUlTMCFMoxelkmP-2FAEuyLOJeI3TqDkkRsl8IA-3D-3DeeEq_0g5QiKQ3ANfCkWXxwzczn1phIok0-2FnBF8GNWXrNhq2-2B4ftGj9DI8Jn4AfRAGeAJVikNEQwxpwEcoOyKbtwuEcKJX9jU3-2BoN-2BCdE2f3amVWjwnMunuiQFw-2B6GbgGdZ5PMEAxUdzfeQ1q0Cgxmxj62b7kuA1dPk003xaNSZsrD7SFXwaXF2Si1YtC8-2BnL2v2VWwMVxu3F9tVJIWGR-2BztJUOorRk15QF10xD-2F4qvAG5RCYPucXcnse5l1WApBcTL1XF24kkUzjCEAiNRXvNFRkhETYeKp-2BTrBz31NWadQNASJTN6OixVNohqfHY0pqOQSJeAq-2FdEdulcbC3pp-2B3ZkeIhPrGjWK6UPmGbCxvIZP8t8UEpkw6iWmodF9mG87T0zF2vPOYoacO8495462sQ1JGycI1ASakMew7L-2Fr9ZoY-2Bxyc9K6S64teg-2B5gO-2FMFCRVWk9c-2Fg76e2T5hC8HNl7hxwHPOHObAXz152qYCmwQ76FgF-2FOhX8QReW9e4eAATWC5ZK5lFsVMVo0PKjXxprjQ8jCMixisLn8L2DRG8OVjHpKejG70hEBJCjc51k0ACXkB1VXkOwX5lX-2FCR4Rf-2FZH9-2F-2FBy8281378CwRDyIphGrXiQ4ZuzGMFWsDjDbXj6-2F8ldgKKq8XstIaMgwxYvjNCItN8KCubueIIA0T8FGLeYpM41i8-2FRz7-2F7Nv4zVumjU1Oes2iZQiswnbcCySDcRzv283J12c-2FdHMnm7NJlh2bVpjXMLdPwGCb9UOopNzhHVEYt4Bf2MlLiAUt6sgUdg1aCVabimCm4ezOVNB-2FjD-2BCPjnnAyVktICDeT2cTsSYQn5WQ2XFm-2B74p7gVNKJuMcj5T6vPQ-3D-3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MORE ON THE EXHIBITION</a> Jennifer Rochlin (b. 1968 in Baltimore, Maryland; lives and works in Altadena, CA) received her MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. Later moving to the west coast, an unexpected opportunity teaching ceramics at an all-girls Catholic high school prompted her first experiments with clay. Largely self-taught in the medium, vessels eventually became central to her practice.&nbsp;Rochlin builds terracotta pots through coil and slab construction, through which the imperfect marks of the artist’s hand are left imprinted on the surface of the clay. The sculptures are engraved with sgraffito techniquesand take on unusual shapes, where imagery moves fluidly across portraiture, politics, art history, and floral patterns, oscillating between personal and collective vignettes. Image: Jennifer Rochlin,&nbsp;Spring in Chicago with Georgia O’Keefe Clouds, 2026.&nbsp;Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Jennifer Rochlin: The Horizon Keeps Moving

Chicago Rooms, Chicago Cultural Center&nbsp;Ornament &amp; Information&nbsp;presents artists working in Chicago and Vienna whose practices explore the historic intellectual exchange between the two cities&nbsp;—&nbsp;from modern architecture to mid-century economic thought. Through sculpture, painting and conceptual approaches, the exhibition reflects on how ideas evolve as they move between cultural contexts.&nbsp;The exhibition is curated in partnership with Gertie Chicago and featured artists include Anna Sophie Berger, Gaylen Gerber, Benjamin Hirte, B. Ingrid Olson, Devin T. Mays, Max Guy, Josef Strau, Isabelle Frances McGuire, Walter Pichler, Diane Simpson, Miriam Stoney, Valentina Triet, Micah Schippa Wildfong, Heimo Zobernig.&nbsp;Public programs include an&nbsp;opening reception on&nbsp;Friday,&nbsp;April 10,&nbsp;6-7pm in the&nbsp;Chicago Rooms&nbsp;and&nbsp;additional&nbsp;performances and artist-led events throughout the exhibition&nbsp;duration.&nbsp;The first performance&nbsp;will be held&nbsp;Saturday,&nbsp;April 11,&nbsp;at 3&nbsp;p.m.&nbsp;inside the&nbsp;Chicago Rooms.&nbsp;Please click&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.CSSunAOBvEOR4GhykBjJWWnTwxFlkUDDBF-2Fji248p2y6hFXsBorvoCC9fZuH5e36Pn-2BTTdSEqSZcF6S-2FCbBA0-2Fq9IH6tXX2BG5b0Mps0RIwEBqRxy-2BD7ec1SCRVfkVtG_fmR_0g5QiKQ3ANfCkWXxwzczn1phIok0-2FnBF8GNWXrNhq2-2B4ftGj9DI8Jn4AfRAGeAJVn7gGoI0v4yHfyxNzcTgWoLurliSnTAPDeTMjcpIoytOOx4olIMMV-2FUlia6rP-2BnJxXYH5O8tvn-2Fktq8OM7hVEsSIVa5QMZTlavNfGLkxY-2Bv5Ob8cNxVZY2QQwdDW7CjMxGACT3QdirHvuvzc-2FrsOP9qq38FKVrw-2Bh9GrF70Ft5aLbE8Nue-2F99yQjGNHjMHb-2B3klk5eNOWFwW9KoazpZWTUcBbiIMt1fpkZVbGxYby8-2FZaNQF4a7WBLAQ6RzIXxH8YyP-2F0HccGKvy2aTPy9pvMm3xHybxP0PGZAjjh3XTrzdo312fc-2BPPYJJGr0RPZuVeVLIsYvy4aTZbNapQwdWH-2Ffw-3D-3D" target="_blank">here</a>&nbsp;for more information on&nbsp;this&nbsp;exhibition.&nbsp;&nbsp;Image: Viennese Drinking Fountain, Hans Muhr, Presented to the City of Chicago on October 2, 1998

Ornament & Information 

Drawn from the Art Institute’s collection, this exhibition focuses on Greek multidisciplinary artist Lucas Samaras’s innovative photographs, as well as sculptures and paintings recently gifted to the museum by the Samaras Estate. These works offer a glimpse into Samaras’s broader practice and invites us into his creative, engaged, and focused life.

Lucas Samaras: Sitting, Standing, Walking, Looking

In the words of Marvin Gaye, singer/songwriter, 1939-1984, "We don't need to escalate | You see, war is not the answer | For only love can conquer hate | You know we've got to find a way | To bring some lovin' here today | Come on talk to me | So you can see | What's going on (What's going on)"&nbsp;&nbsp; Opening Reception, Saturday, July 11, 2026Virtual Artists' Talk, Thursday, July 9, 2026, 7 PM CT

9th Annual Vicinity Regional Exhibition

Part I, September 23, 2025 - February 22, 2026Part II, March 24, 2026 - July 26, 2026Why and how do people form political communities? How does political society organize our economic lives - and vice versa? And how as individuals do we navigate society?Smart to the Core: Wise to Power&nbsp;examines these questions by integrating visual art with foundational texts of modern social and political thought spanning nearly four centuries. Through a wide range of creative practices and philosophical perspectives, the exhibition addresses themes that are widely familiar yet deeply connected to specific political, economic, and cultural histories.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=a6520b5f11&amp;e=00938adab1" target="_blank">Learn more about this exhibition</a>

Smart to the Core: Wise to Power (Part II)

Go behind the scenes of printmaking during this special offsite visit to the <a href="https://driehausmuseum.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=32343bbcd4e3063e18cdf64bf&amp;id=b8ba843115&amp;e=d1db3f815c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chicago Printmakers Collaborative</a>. <a href="https://driehausmuseum.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=32343bbcd4e3063e18cdf64bf&amp;id=27beada8e3&amp;e=d1db3f815c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TICKETS</a>

Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Tour

Randolph Street Market Festival<a href="https://randolphstreetmarket.com/event/randolph-street-market-festival-july-2026/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Buy Tickets</a><a href="https://randolphstreetmarket.com/vendor-application-july/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Become a Vendor</a>Indoor &amp; OutdoorSUMMER SOLSTICE BASH!Stroll on over to the Market and enjoy shopping 200 indoor and outdoor dealers! Find some great shades and breezy fashion as well as accoutrements for casual lifestyle and leisure time. Recharge your battery inside with cool cool A/C. Continuous live music, DJ’s, food and 3-Market Bars too!

Randolph Street Market Festival 

Center for Native Futures presents Hattie Lee Mendoza, Melissa Melero-Moose, Sean Chandler

Hattie Lee Mendoza, Melissa Melero-Moose, Sean Chandler 

Artists: Natalja Heybrook, Ruti Modlin, Jeein Kim

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