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

Opening Weekend Celebrations: October 4th - 5th, 2025 ﻿The Smart Museum of Art presents&nbsp;Theaster Gates's first&nbsp;solo museum exhibition in his hometown of Chicago. A self-designated “keeper of objects,” the artist Theaster Gates investigates the value of things and their potential to hold layered meanings. He has been dedicated to investing in the care of these objects as a way to nurture stories and voices – often Black stories and voices – largely overlooked by history or institutional structures. The exhibition&nbsp;Theaster Gates: Unto Thee&nbsp;is rooted in several core collections of objects that have been part of Gates’s artistic practice which he acquired through the University of Chicago, where he is Professor of Visual Arts. Ranging from the Department of Art History’s glass lantern slides and&nbsp;display vitrines from the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute), to paint-stained concrete from the floors of Midway Studios and wooden pews made for Bond Chapel, all objects have been discarded and identified as no longer needed. In creating new works with them over the years – and, as will be done again, in new installations at the Smart – Gates challenges that notion of stasis by instead excavating more histories, more stories. These installations will be accompanied by Gates’s more recent work including paintings, ceramics, film, and pieces incorporating the archive of the Johnson Publishing Company. Rooted in materials and Gates’s interest in the process of making,&nbsp;Unto Thee&nbsp;embodies the relationships Gates has fostered within the University of Chicago, local communities, the South Side and broader Chicago. It underscores the artist’s unassailable belief in the potential of art to connect with and transform communities. The exhibition is accompanied by a site-specific installation as part of the Museum’s Threshold Lobby Series, which will be on view through July 2026. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=6d81ba16bf&amp;e=a6ad3ea4a5" target="_blank">Read the Exhibition Listing</a>

Theaster Gates: Unto Thee

Artists: Andrew Bearnot, Larry Bell, James Collins, Shingo Francis, Kate Joyce, Jan Tichy, Ruth Root and Kim Uchiyama “Colours are the deeds and sufferings of light.”&nbsp;- Goethe&nbsp; SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to present the salon invitational exhibition&nbsp;Luminous Matter.&nbsp;Luminous Matter&nbsp;brings together a group of eight artists that formally and conceptually explore the interconnectedness of color, light, and form. The exhibition includes an intergenerational roster of artists and was curated with the assistance of gallery artists’ Luftwerk.&nbsp;Luminous Matter&nbsp;is presented concurrently with Luftwerk’s debut solo exhibition&nbsp;The Sun Standing Still.&nbsp;These exhibitions will be on view from December 5 through February 14, 2026 at 1801 W. Hubbard St. An opening reception will take place on Friday, December 5 from 5 to 8PM.Luminous Matter&nbsp;is an exhibition that examines the interdependent and generative relationship between three elemental constituents of visual experience: color, light, and form. Each, in isolation, holds an autonomous aesthetic and conceptual presence; yet, in their convergence, they produce the perceptual and emotional conditions through which we apprehend the world. This exhibition proposes that the meeting point of these three tropes — their overlaps, tensions, and dissolutions — can offer a renewed lens through which to consider the nature of perception itself.While color, light, and form have historically served as fundamental building blocks of visual art, they also occupy complex theoretical terrain. Goethe’s assertion that “colours are the deeds and sufferings of light” provides an entry point into this dialogue: color emerges not merely as a surface attribute, but as an event — a manifestation of interaction, time, and transformation. Light, meanwhile, becomes both a material and a metaphor, shaping visibility and revealing the interstitial boundaries between presence and absence. Form, often regarded as static or structural, is here treated as fluid and responsive, contingent upon the oscillations of both light and color.In this exhibition, these three forces are explored not as fixed categories but as active agents of experience. They are seen as participants in an ongoing exchange between the physical and the psychological, the empirical and the affective. The works assembled for&nbsp;Luminous Matter&nbsp;engage with this exchange through a range of media — from painting and installation to light-based and spatial practices — each probing how visual phenomena can evoke states of emotion, cognition, and embodied perception.At its conceptual core,&nbsp;Luminous Matter&nbsp;contends that perception is never neutral. It is conditioned by memory, by emotion, and by cultural systems of meaning. The exhibition therefore foregrounds the socio-emotional register of perception: how color can serve as a proxy for mood or identity; how light, in its absence or excess, can structure both social and psychic space; and how form operates as a vessel for the unseen forces of attention, gesture, and time. These investigations bridge the rational and the intuitive, inviting viewers to inhabit a space where vision becomes a mode of introspection.In dialogue with this group presentation, a solo exhibition by the Chicago-based artist collaborative&nbsp;Luftwerk&nbsp;(Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero) expands the conversation into an immersive field of light and spatial perception. Known for their site-responsive installations that manipulate color and luminosity to alter architectural experience, Luftwerk’s practice offers a vivid articulation of the exhibition’s central inquiry: how light not only illuminates but transforms — both materially and psychologically.Situated within the gallery’s newly expanded 10,000-square-foot space,&nbsp;Luminous Matter&nbsp;is conceived as an experiential continuum rather than a static arrangement. Viewers are invited to navigate a choreography of light, hue, and shape that evolves with each movement and glance. This mutable environment underscores the exhibition’s central thesis: that meaning is not located solely in the object, but in the relational encounter between viewer, artwork, and environment.Ultimately,&nbsp;Luminous Matter&nbsp;seeks to reactivate our sensitivity to the subtle transactions that occur at the thresholds of perception. In an era saturated by digital imagery and artificial illumination, this exhibition returns to the primal forces of color, light, and form — not as mere formal devices, but as conduits of human experience, capable of evoking wonder, reflection, and the quiet rediscovery of seeing itself.

Luminous Matter

SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change September 19, 2025–February 26, 2026 Over the past decade, the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has sustained an international forum on architecture and urbanism centered in Chicago and has continued to produce the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture in North America every two years. CAB exhibitions and public programs have engaged over 2.2 million visitors with innovative ideas in design through over 400 original projects created by architects, artists and designers from nearly 50 countries. CAB is excited to celebrate its tenth anniversary with CAB 6, the next iteration of the Biennial to be held in 2025, led by Florencia Rodriguez, a writer, editor and Director of and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago's School of Architecture (UIC/SoArch), who will be the Biennial's first Latina Artistic Director.&nbsp; Titled&nbsp;Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, CAB 6 will present an expansive and multi-faceted exploration of the field of architecture and the built environment globally, specifically as they respond to and are remade by a rapidly changing world. In tandem with exhibitions, installations, events and a robust youth education program throughout Chicago, CAB 6 will also produce a series of initiatives, both local and virtual, that will expand the intellectual footprint of the Biennial beyond the city itself.&nbsp; The sixth edition of CAB, which is free and open to the public, will open its central exhibition in the Chicago Cultural Center on September 19, 2025 and run through February 28, 2026. * Opening Weekend The 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial,&nbsp;SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change,&nbsp;launches this September with a dynamic weekend of exhibitions, events, panel discussions, and activations that will continue across the city through February 2026.&nbsp; The Biennial officially opens to the public on&nbsp;September 19, 2025, with exhibitions at the&nbsp;Chicago Cultural Center,&nbsp;Graham Foundation,&nbsp;Stony Island Arts Bank, a site-specific installation on the grounds of the&nbsp;Griffin Museum of Science and Industry,&nbsp;and a special performance and opening celebration at the&nbsp;historic&nbsp;Roundhouse&nbsp;at&nbsp;The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. Across these sites, more than 70 architects, artists, and designers explore the profound cultural, social, and environmental transformations shaping our world today. The projects on view engage the uncertainty of our time, but also offer visions of creativity, resilience, and possibility—asking how architecture can contribute to the futures we want to imagine together. Opening weekend also highlights programming from local partners, including the Chicago Architecture Center, National Public Housing Museum, and De Paul Art Museum, among others. These collaborations underscore the Biennial’s commitment to linking global conversations with Chicago’s unique architectural and civic landscape. The following is an outline of special programming and events throughout the opening. Select each event to find further information. We look forward to continuing citywide expansion of the Biennial with the opening of a new exhibition site in&nbsp;November&nbsp;that brings together over&nbsp;25 large-scale projects&nbsp;advancing the ideas at the heart of&nbsp;SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change.&nbsp; We invite you to join one of our many programs during opening weekend, and continue exploring as the Biennial unfolds through February 28, with successive moments of programming that spotlight its thematic capsules and partner initiatives across the city.

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2025

Inside the&nbsp;Roger Brown Study CollectionOn View at the Art Preserve Opening Saturday, October 11, at the Art Preserve, a new installation brings a selection from artist&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://jmkac.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=972c21ce29cd75dcf33b15668&amp;id=355550f260&amp;e=198a7ee908" target="_blank">Roger Brown</a>’s eclectic Chicago home collection into public view for the first time since its acquisition. Containing over 2,000 works by fellow Chicago Imagists and non-mainstream artists, Brown’s collection reflects his playful sensibility, Southern heritage, and deep admiration for his mentor, artist Ray Yoshida. Visitors will encounter a vibrant mix of folk and Indigenous art, thrift store finds, souvenirs, fine art, costumes, and pop culture objects—all echoing Brown’s unique eye for composition, narrative, and the silhouetted form. This introductory installation—situated near Yoshida’s own home environment collection at the Art Preserve—highlights the visual and conceptual connections between the two artists. Among the featured objects is Brown’s rear stairwell shelf, a striking vignette modeled after Yoshida’s signature shelves, packed with quirky toys, thrifted paintings, and references to artist Jesse Howard. Brown’s love of Southern pottery, mid-century cars, and figures also shines through, offering a rich glimpse into his singular artistic world. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://jmkac.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=972c21ce29cd75dcf33b15668&amp;id=2526874222&amp;e=198a7ee908" target="_blank">Explore the Installation</a>

The Roger Brown Study Collection

<a style="color: rgb(237, 125, 49);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.lVpDCVeqdBsS0YynwBNnWsI6uzjI-2B9jc-2BcioV3sOeK8yW-2BXyw5UQYrM55ZmS7mjePlRYQZlyaKPtMRp0luyHNesq46Np7sE-2F-2FPT2ta0hzX4-3DrDWG_0g5QiKQ3ANfCkWXxwzczn1phIok0-2FnBF8GNWXrNhq2-2B4ftGj9DI8Jn4AfRAGeAJVn7gGoI0v4yHfyxNzcTgWoLQij9mq4AdTVgAgcfJX-2F-2FPTu332zUjMMqljcxl9w9r3NoRmsXeaDJt17yw0Bwdc3Xwn40iqTGYQf4nKFTgHyvqC1JX7YVIcYK01LpLq2CgQ-2FdzxHBkxuepSll1dN5U2zjwahWMisDGxBM-2B2Va361iP-2BPGr0H6PvTvjVGhVJNKfGtNDPbavuE8bnyAogeomoNlnsYTa5SsoMvxvMqQ7JceljQp4sQ4UnA8oE659YoY-2F-2B9NyCYC3qx41foND8EiD9xmT8oA3bL8-2F1HZEEroCpMLEkNlyaB2WuePtkTT6hb4q7csh9U55niPVSACtiVelAng-3D-3D" target="_blank">Monumental: Larger than Life-Size</a>—a new exhibition that invites viewers to explore “oversized” artwork from the museum’s permanent collection—opens at the Racine Art Museum (RAM) on August 1, 2025. This exhibition relates to the question of why human beings are fascinated by “real life” things that are rendered larger or smaller than life-size. Throughout art history, there are many examples of everyday objects that became mysterious or more compelling because of a shift in scale. From oversized body parts and clay vessels to an abnormally large bronze pear, the works on display in&nbsp;Monumental&nbsp;encourage viewers to consider how size affects expectations and opinions of art. RAM Director of Exhibitions and Collections Lena Vigna believes that, depending on a viewer’s perspective, this exhibition could be considered serious, playful, or both:“Oversize fruit, such as the bronze pear and the glass plum, encourages viewers to contemplate complex issues such<s>&nbsp;as</s>&nbsp;the relationship between consumerism, health, and safety. Are bigger and better products good for the environment or our health?” questions Vigna. “At the same time, large ceramic feet and heads are fantastical, calling to mind fairy tales and legends. Reflecting the concerns of contemporary artists who use traditional materials in unexpected ways, the works on display reflect things that are simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar as they blur the boundaries between reality and mystery.”Why are human beings fascinated by “real life” things that are rendered larger or smaller than life-size? Throughout art history, there are many examples of everyday objects that became mysterious or more compelling because of a shift in scale. From oversized body parts and clay vessels to an abnormally large bronze pear, these works from RAM’s collection encourage viewers to consider how size affects their expectations and opinions. On display in RAM’s street-facing Windows on Fifth Gallery,&nbsp;Monumental&nbsp;will be available for continual, free public viewing—24 hours a day, seven days a week. Further information about&nbsp;Monumental&nbsp;is available on RAM’s website,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(237, 125, 49);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.lVpDCVeqdBsS0YynwBNnWsI6uzjI-2B9jc-2BcioV3sOeK8yW-2BXyw5UQYrM55ZmS7mjePlRYQZlyaKPtMRp0luyHNesq46Np7sE-2F-2FPT2ta0hzX4-3D68Mw_0g5QiKQ3ANfCkWXxwzczn1phIok0-2FnBF8GNWXrNhq2-2B4ftGj9DI8Jn4AfRAGeAJVn7gGoI0v4yHfyxNzcTgWoLQij9mq4AdTVgAgcfJX-2F-2FPTu332zUjMMqljcxl9w9r3NoRmsXeaDJt17yw0Bwdc3Xwn40iqTGYQf4nKFTgHyvqC1JX7YVIcYK01LpLq2CgQ-2FdzxHBkxuepSll1dN5U2zjwahWMisDGxBM-2B2Va361iPqPfxW42d4UX-2BEcYUi3JwvltYehZmIc-2BNM5oNTkLrlKdneP79LTAo8eQqYKhBe7ApfubFH63l5xIreTpq4X2-2FLM2OwP2AuroQc26AsyY9i2WBh4Eb25XVgINlB2oaWsOzs2A2G0RTkQXQj35S1rogNT47TPMqCW6apD2KYgQ0yaA-3D-3D" target="_blank">ramart.org</a>.&nbsp;

Monumental: Larger than Life-Size

this morning there was&nbsp;light,tomorrow morning there&nbsp;will be light,but where is light?&nbsp;&nbsp;- Etel Adnan SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce our representation of, and the debut solo presentation for, Chicago-based artist collaborative&nbsp;Luftwerk.&nbsp;Titled&nbsp;The Sun Standing Still, this&nbsp;exhibition features a suite of new sculptures, wall reliefs, and a site-specific installation by Luftwerk that investigate the dynamic interplay between sunlight and the Earth’s revolution. This exhibition is presented concurrently with&nbsp;Luminous Matter, an invitational survey co-organized with Luftwerk and featuring 8 artists. Both exhibitions open Friday, December 5 from 5–8 PM and remain on view through February 14, 2026.The time before and after daylight, when everything appears muted yet quietly spectacular, reveals a distinct and transitory palette. Capturing the fleeting and subjective perception of light and atmosphere, the works on view in&nbsp;The Sun Standing Still&nbsp;explore how color, devoid of literal representation, can evoke emotional and sensory responses. Fittingly, the exhibition dates include December 21, better known as the Winter Solstice, or the first day of winter. This is the day when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the sun, resulting in the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year.&nbsp;Beyond its astronomical importance, this day also marks the culturally symbolic rebirth of the sun: a renewal imbued with hope, resilience, and the cyclical rhythm of time.Expanding upon their ongoing investigations into the relationship between perception, space, and light, Luftwerk draws conceptual parallels to Claude Monet’s 1872 painting&nbsp;Impression, soleil levant&nbsp;(Impression, Sunrise), the work that gave name to Impressionism. Just as Monet sought to capture the immediacy of light, Luftwerk transforms that fleeting energy into sculptural and immersive forms, translating light itself into color and vibration.The Sun Standing Still&nbsp;features a range of sculptural objects and a large-scale installation that together create a harmonious, meditative environment. With a focus on heightened perception, color, light, and form become the primary materials shaping an experience that unfolds through the viewer’s movement. This reciprocal interaction—light cast as color onto form—reveals a complex dialogue between energy and perception. Filtered through the celestial rhythm of the sun’s path, Luftwerk’s phenomenological approach opens a space for reflection, renewal, and tangible meaning. Luftwerk&nbsp;(Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, lives and works in Chicago) have exhibited broadly at institutions including: Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred, NY; Cheekwood Estate &amp; Gardens, Nashville, TN; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA; Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich; Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL and Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL. Throughout their practice, Luftwerk has develop a robust portfolio of projects that engage with notable modern and contemporary architecture including: Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago, IL by Gehry Partners;&nbsp;Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona and Farnsworth House, Plano, IL by Mies van der Rohe; Ford Residence, Aurora, IL by Bruce Goff; Millennium Park, Chicago, IL by SOM; Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA and Robie House, Chicago, IL by Frank Lloyd Wright; and Netsch Residence, Chicago, IL by Walter Netsch. The artists have realized numerous large-scale permanent public and private commissions in Atlanta, Calgary, Charlotte, Chicago, Harare, Tampa, and Kansas City. They have received numerous awards, including project awards from the AIA Chicago, Graham Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council. Their work is in several public and private collections including the Public Art collections of Chicago and Fulton County, Museum Buchheim, USF Institute for Research in Art.&nbsp;Their work has been featured in publications such as Artforum, Hyperallergic, Time Magazine, The New Yorker.&nbsp; Adnan, Etel.&nbsp;Journey to Mount Tamalpais, 1986. The Post-Apollo Press.

Luftwerk: The Sun Standing Still

ESSENCE&nbsp;witnessed by clouds&nbsp; Eight black artists. Seven men, one woman. Seven Nigerian, one American. Through spirit, story, emotion, nature, and culture, ESSENCE reflects the truth that every human being carries within them a light that gives life value, direction, and meaning, and gives voice to the desire to leave something meaningful behind. Opening Reception: February 21, 2026, 5-9 PM ShadowBoxX Gallery, 116 Washington St, Waukegan IL Zoom Collectors Preview/Artist Talk: Friday February 20, 9 AM

Essence

The Arts Club’s Exhibition of Visual Artist Members is a beloved tradition that brings great pride and prestige to the institution and its membership. Following an inaugural exhibition of paintings by John Singer Sargent in 1916, the second exhibition ever mounted at The Arts Club was of work by our members. Although its structure has changed over the past century, the goal of the exhibition remains the same: to celebrate and showcase the creative efforts of our artist members across a range of media, styles, genres, and forms.To continue The Arts Club’s tradition of showcasing a current and dynamic representation of our members’ practices, participants are asked to submit works completed within the past two years. Some of the artists members are participating in this exhibition for the first time; others have participated for several decades.It is a remarkable accomplishment to have reached the 92nd Artist Exhibition, the 91st of which featured a record-breaking 84 artist participants. We celebrate most sincerely our artist members’ capacity to thrive, make new and exciting work, and forge community through turbulent times.Photo: Installation view,&nbsp;91st Exhibition of Visual Artist Members, January 2024. Photo: Michael Tropea.

The 92nd Exhibition of Visual Artist Members

The Newberry’s physical collection is vast, containing over 1.6 million books, 600,000 maps, 1,300 unique archival collections, and much more. Altogether, this material fills over 27.5 miles of shelving.In the mid-1990s, prompted by the rise of the internet, new imaging technology, and increasing demand, the Newberry began to digitize its material. While this work initially supported specific publications and exhibitions, the benefits quickly expanded. Now, digitization is central to our mission, making a significant and ever-growing portion of our holdings accessible to scholars globally, fostering new types of research, and engaging a broader public.This exhibit offers a snapshot of our&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://collections.newberry.org/" target="_blank">digital collection</a>, showcasing some of our most popular educational and interactive digital resources.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/from-page-to-pixel" target="_blank">Details</a><h3> </h3>

From Page to Pixel: Discovering the Digital Newberry

While some institutions limit collection holdings to one or two pieces per artist, RAM is often interested in representing a career through multiple examples. Those whose works are collected in depth are referred to as “archive artists.” While the number of pieces needed to achieve this status is medium-specific, these holdings might also include things like personal records, sketchbooks, or studies made in preparation for a larger work.From The Archives&nbsp;showcases eight Wisconsin-based artists with recently established archives at RAM—Jerrold Belland, Lisa Englander, Caren Heft, Alex Mandli, Michael Nitsch, Bill Reid, Susan M. Sorenson, and Marc Wollman—each of whom have long-standing and impactful connections to RAM and Wustum. They are former staff members and RAMA Board members, regular juried exhibition participants, Artist Fellowship Award recipients, and longtime supporters of the Museum. Featuring a mixture of existing collection holdings and recent acquisitions, this exhibition offers a glimpse into the careers of these eight artists who have helped make RAM what it is todayArtists in the ExhibitionJerrold Belland, Lisa Englander, Caren Heft, Alex Mandli, Michael Nitsch, Bill Reid, Susan M. Sorenson, and Marc Wollman

From the Archives: Recently Established Artist Archives at RAM

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://experience.mcachicago.org/7252/7258" target="_blank">Get Tickets</a> Admission is free to Family Day attendees. This month find lost things and transform them into something new.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 | Pocket Con, MCA Chicago, December 9, 2023. Photo: Alexis Ellers.

Family Day | Lost and Found

The&nbsp;Driehaus Museum&nbsp;is proud to announce&nbsp;Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade,&nbsp;an exhibition illuminating the volume and breadth of Louis C. Tiffany’s vast artistic production. From the 1890s to the 1920s, Tiffany Studios created a captivating range of decorative lighting fixtures that embraced the technological shift from oil lamps to electricity and simultaneously met the styles and tastes of nineteenth and twentieth century consumers. Drawn from the expansive collections of the Museum and the private art collection of Richard H. Driehaus (now in the Art Exhibition Lending Foundation), the exhibition explores how the artisans at Tiffany Studios used a range of materials—including bronze, enamel, pottery, and glass—to bring Tiffany’s innovative lighting designs to life. Organized by guest curator Alexandra M. Ruggiero,&nbsp;Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;will be on view at the Driehaus Museum,&nbsp;50 E. Erie Street&nbsp;from&nbsp;September 12, 2025 to March 15, 2026.&nbsp;Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum&nbsp;Lisa M. Key&nbsp;says, “Many Chicagoans and tourists have seen Tiffany lamps in passing but have not had a chance to encounter them in depth or within a richly contextualized narrative. This is a chance to draw people back to the Driehaus Museum by inviting them to see familiar works in new ways. It is an opportunity for the Museum to highlight a core strength and position as a national leader in the complex storytelling of the Gilded Age and the interpretation of design and decorative arts from this time period. In this case, the exhibition will explore the broader context—from design processes, to materials, labor, and the influence of designers like Clara Driscoll—to reframe the narrative around Tiffany Studios. “Building on past exhibitions such as&nbsp;Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany&nbsp;(2019-2020) and&nbsp;Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection&nbsp;(2015),&nbsp;Tiffany: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;expands the narrative of Tiffany lamps beyond their iconic glass shades. Guest curator Alexandra Ruggiero&nbsp;says, “I am thrilled to partner with Driehaus Museum and present the&nbsp;extraordinary range of&nbsp;Louis C. Tiffany’s&nbsp;lighting fixtures&nbsp;with a new perspective. The exhibition features objects that exemplify Tiffany’s remarkable ability to marry innovation and outstanding design, enabling museum visitors a chance to marvel at the materiality and incredible artistry of Tiffany lamps.&nbsp;In addition to presenting a range of lamp types and designs, the exhibition will include a selection of decorative objects produced by Tiffany Studios, such as&nbsp;Favrile&nbsp;glass and pottery vases, enamel and bronze boxes, and a leaded-glass fire screen. The exhibition also includes noteworthy works never before exhibited at the Driehaus Museum, including a table lamp with an enameled base and a monumental bronze and Favrile glass chandelier. Within the setting of the Driehaus Museum, the exhibition contextualizes&nbsp;the significant output of Tiffany Studios and provides visitors with a look at the innovation, design, materiality, and business of Tiffany lamps.Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;deepens the natural partnership between the Driehaus Museum and the Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation. By bringing together works from the Museum’s permanent collection and the Foundation holdings, the Museum can offer a broader, richer, and more nuanced presentation of Tiffany’s legacy—one that exemplifies Richard Driehaus’ belief in the power of beauty to inspire. This support deepens the Museum’s role as a cultural steward of the Richard H. Driehaus collection and extends its ability to tell new stories through exceptional design. ABOUT THE CURATORAlexandra M. Ruggiero is a decorative arts curator specializing in glass and a Consulting Curator at The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York. Ruggiero enjoyed a decade of curatorial experience at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), where she worked on projects and research that spanned the history of glass. From 2019 to 2022, she was Curator of Modern Glass with responsibility for acquisitions, exhibitions, cataloging, and research of the CMoG’s glass collections from 1825–1945. In 2023, she was the Interim Department Head, Curator of Collections &amp; Exhibitions at The Rockwell Museum—A Smithsonian Affiliate in Corning, NY. Ruggiero earned a master’s in the History of Decorative Arts through the Corcoran College of Art + Design and Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators. ABOUT THE DRIEHAUS MUSEUMThe Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored 1883 Nickerson Mansion, and the 1926 Murphy Auditorium. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org/" target="_blank">driehausmuseum.org</a>&nbsp;and connect with the Museum on&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Driehaus-Museum/362867207176025" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, TikTok,&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade

Timed with the release of the sequel to last year’s blockbuster film,&nbsp;Wicked,&nbsp;The&nbsp;Land of Oz: Beyond the Page&nbsp;takes visitors back to the original 1939 inspiration. The installation will be on view in two galleries on the Museum’s third floor. Curated by Laura Woolley, a memorabilia expert and consultant known for her appearances on&nbsp;Antiques Roadshow&nbsp;and her work at The Collector’s Lab,&nbsp;Land of Oz: Beyond the Page&nbsp;explores the imaginative artistry required to turn the classic children’s story into a beloved movie. Divided into three sections—Writing, Costume, and Production Design—the installation reveals how designers brought L. Frank Baum’s world to life.Highlights include a replica of Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers, an early draft of the script, a prototype of the iconic Flying Monkey costume, a character costume from Emerald City, and a replica of the Cowardly Lion’s Medal of Courage. Visitors will also see an original edition of the&nbsp;Wizard of Oz&nbsp;book, a historic telegram announcing the change from silver to ruby slippers, and a rare illustration of the Emerald City. Families, film lovers, and design enthusiasts alike will find something to spark their imaginations.Land of Oz: Page to Screen&nbsp;deepens the natural partnership between the Driehaus Museum and the Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation. This&nbsp;support&nbsp;cements&nbsp;the&nbsp;Museum’s&nbsp;role&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;cultural&nbsp;steward&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Richard&nbsp;H.&nbsp;Driehaus&nbsp;Collectionand&nbsp;extends&nbsp;its&nbsp;ability&nbsp;to&nbsp;tell&nbsp;new&nbsp;stories&nbsp;through&nbsp;exceptional&nbsp;design.&nbsp;According to&nbsp;Cynthia Van Osdol, the President and CEO of the Driehaus Trust Company, “From a young age, the Land of Oz presented a fantasy world for our founder, Richard Driehaus. He found great escape in the purpose and teamwork of its characters, and the Yellow Brick Road held a particularly vivid allure for him. As he expanded his art collection, he acquired texts, costumes, and production design originals from the 1939 film. These included, of course, our pair of Ruby Red Slippers, and a series of brilliant watercolors by Jack Smith Martin which were instrumental in the creation of the film. Equally influential is a spectacular pastel of the Emerald City, with its pair of concentric deco-styled white halos and the white light that radiates from its core. As a champion of late 19th and early 20th century architecture, it's easy to imagine why this piqued Richard's imagination. By sharing these treasures--some for the first time--we hope the public will be equally inspired. "

The Land of Oz: Beyond the Page

<a style="color: rgb(84, 88, 89);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.meijergardens.org/plensa/?occurrence=2025-10-24" target="_blank">Jaume Plensa: A New Humanism</a>&nbsp;explores Jaume Plensa’s career-long engagement with themes common to our shared humanity such as dreams, desire, justice and mortality. While Plensa’s oeuvre is marked by diversity in format and media, the human condition remains the primary subject of his art, which traverses the personal and collective, individual and universal. Featuring both monumental and intimate-scaled sculptures and select two-dimensional works that span three decades, this is the first retrospective of this internationally acclaimed artist in the United States. Image: Jaume Plensa.&nbsp;Hortense in Slumberland, 2021. Bronze, Edition of 11. 30 x 22 x 20 cm. Photo: Roberto Ruiz © Plensa Studio Barcelona

Jaume Plensa: A New Humanism

Western Exhibitions is thrilled to present Spaces for People, Systems for Spaces, a group show about the built environment — cities, buildings, structures, urban planning — featuring 15 artists from across the States who make art about architecture.&nbsp;Kim BeckJohn BehnkeMarshall BrownCourttney CooperShir EndeEdie FakeJazmine HarrisR.J. JuguilonMakayla LindsayAya NakamuraBrian PetroneDeb SokolowRyan StandfestMarvin YoungJoe Zaldivar

Spaces for People, Systems for Spaces

Not a Soft Thing is a multifaceted exhibition by 15 artist/mothers spanning diverse cultural backgrounds, disciplines, and stages of caregiving. Together, this artist collective challenges the idealized narratives of motherhood, exposing the strength, struggle, and resilience that shape both art making and parenting. Through the media of painting, photography, ceramics, text, and installation, this exhibition explores the question: “What does it mean to create in the margins of care?” Some pieces are resolved and refined; others remain raw, incomplete, or in-process by design, revealing the realities of creating art in stolen moments. Collectively, the works reflect the fragmented time, emotional labor, and radical tenderness inherent in caregiving. Born organically through an interconnected community of artist mothers, this collective was founded as a space of solidarity. Not a Soft Thing is not only about their identity, but also about how they keep showing up—building community with and for one another creating, caring, and telling stories that shape contemporary art and culture. This exhibition is both a call to action and an invitation—to recognize caregiving not as a barrier to creativity, but as a powerful, generative force within it. Included in the exhibition are artworks uniquely designed to be kid-friendly and serve as an open invitation for audience participation, creating space for meaningful, memorable interactions for all generations. Exhibiting artists include A.Martinez, Angela Lopez, Aubrey Ingmar, Bobbi Meier, Connie Noyes, Cydney M Lewis, Jenny Halpern, Jihae Park, Katie Kirk, Keeley Haftner, Noelle Garcia, Orr Menirom, Sarana Mehra, Tulika Ladsariya, and Yemisi Oyeniyi.

Not a Soft Thing: A Group Exhibition by Artist Mothers

The Center Program offers artists who are ready to raise their practice to the next level the opportunity to develop new work, receive feedback from art professionals, and work towards an exhibition at the Art Center over the course of eight months. This eleventh iteration of the program will feature the work of 20 artists guest curated by Teresa Silva, an independent curator and writer based in Chicago.

Center Program

DiscussionSpecial Guests of the ArtistWith Danny Bredar, Gaylen Gerber, and Oscar ZhengSun, Mar 22, 2pm For this informal discussion in the gallery space, Leah Ke Yi Zheng is joined by three people from her close circle: artists Danny Bredar and Gaylen Gerber, and her son Oscar Zheng. Each of them brings an intimate familiarity with her practice and a deeply personal perspective on her work. In an impromptu, unscripted exchange, they surface aspects of Zheng’s exhibition that might not emerge in a formal artist talk. Their conversation mirrors the spirit of the&nbsp;I Ching&nbsp;itself, which, according to Zheng, absorbs all aspects of life. Visit&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://renaissancesociety.org/" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information.

Discussion with Danny Bredar, Gaylen Gerber, and Oscar Zheng

Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago,&nbsp;the first exhibition to open in Intuit’s newly-renovated museum, is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.&nbsp; Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago&nbsp;is the first major exhibition to focus on the importance of immigration and migration in the genre of self-taught art. The exhibition underscores the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants,&nbsp;broadening the scope to include artists deserving of greater attention, while posing questions about access to the art world and how art comes to be defined and valued. Considering artists in the context of their migration experience, cultural backgrounds and communities invites new insights into their work. Chicago, a city with a significant and ongoing history of immigration and migration, is fertile ground for investigating the rich array of academic and nonacademic influences—cultural, communal and familial—that enrich artistic production.&nbsp;The exhibition aims to be inclusive of the experiences of immigrants and migrants while acknowledging social and legal differences.&nbsp;&nbsp;Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago&nbsp;explores catalysts for leaving home, for coming to Chicago and for pursuing an art practice.&nbsp;The range of personal and political subject matter and artistic styles reflects artists processing distinct cultural traditions, memories and experiences of living far from one’s homeland. Themes in the artworks range from belonging and longing for homeland, to labor and individual expression, to bearing witness to history, to assimilation.&nbsp; The narrative centers on the rise of self-taught art in Chicago during the second half of the 20th century, opportunities for artists leading up to this time, and the continued importance of im/migration and self-taught art to Chicago today. Image credit: Derek Webster, American, born Puerto Castilla (Republic of Honduras), raised in Belize City (British Honduras, now Belize), 1934-2009. Untitled (Turtle with up-turned head), 1990. Paint on found wood and found materials, 12 x 19 x 30 in. Collection of Intuit Art Museum, gift of Madeline Murphy Rabb, 2021.6

Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" target="_blank">Hyde Park Art Center</a> announces&nbsp;Mutuality, a group exhibition of new works culminating the Art Center’s biennial&nbsp;Center Program, a professional development program for the elevation of emerging and mid-career artists, now in its 11th edition. Curated by writer, curator, and art administrator&nbsp;Teresa Silva, this exhibition will occupy the entire first floor galleries from&nbsp;December 12, 2025 – March 8, 2026, featuring works by twenty artists from Center Program’s 2025 cohort.The&nbsp;Mutuality&nbsp;exhibition brings together artists whose diverse works were created in a rigorous and continual context of self-reflection and dialogue over the course of nearly a year:&nbsp;Bethany Cordero,&nbsp;Amethyst J. Davis,&nbsp;Caitlyn Doran,&nbsp;Josué Esaú,&nbsp;Richard Gessert,&nbsp;Jalen Hamilton,&nbsp;Juan Molina Hernández,&nbsp;Amay Kataria,&nbsp;Millicent Kennedy,&nbsp;Deborah Kraft,&nbsp;Dawn Liddicoatt,&nbsp;Charlotte Mays,&nbsp;Kelly McKaig,&nbsp;Gabriel Moreno,&nbsp;Vida Sačić,&nbsp;Carlos Salazar-Lermont,&nbsp;Eugene I-Peng Tang,&nbsp;Carina Vargas-Nuñez,&nbsp;Frank Vega, and&nbsp;Katie Vota. Artworks in the exhibition represent a multitude of disciplines ranging from painting and drawing to sculpture and installation to photography and video to fiber and printmaking to performance and sound.The exhibition defines mutuality as demonstrating mutual care and interest as artists and people to think about how intentions, works, and practice impact the world. Throughout the program, mutuality guided the weekly presentations and conversations among the artists to take their work to a new level. The exhibition gives shape and form to mutuality as a creative process, emphasizing that dialogue and connection drive inspired development.&nbsp;About the curatorTeresa Silva&nbsp;is the Chicago co-director of the national artist-run cooperative, Tiger Strikes Asteroid. In 2020, Silva curated&nbsp;Luis A. Sahagun: Both Eagle and Serpent,&nbsp;the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Other recently curated exhibitions were presented at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Mana Contemporary, and 6018North. Her curated exhibitions have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Art Design Chicago, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Silva has won wide praise for her art leadership, having served as a Visual Arts Panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts in 2020; and, lauded in 2019 and 2022 in Newcity’s&nbsp;Art 50: Chicago’s Visual Vanguard&nbsp;for her influence and contributions to the city’s art and culture. Previously, Silva was the Director of Exhibitions and Residencies and subsequently the Executive and Artistic Director at the Chicago Artists Coalition, from 2014-2022. About Center ProgramA long-time professional development program for Chicago artists who are ready to raise their practice to the next level, Center Program offers the unique opportunity to develop new work, receive feedback from art professionals in the field, and work towards an exhibition at the Art Center. Over the course of a year and half, a supportive peer network, guest artists, gallerists, critics, and professionals push artists to answer tough questions and evolve their practice.&nbsp;&nbsp;About 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>.&nbsp;

Mutuality

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is thrilled to announce the latest installation in its&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=5302a2f296&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">Atrium Project series, featuring the mural&nbsp;The Free Clinic for Gender Affirming Care&nbsp;by artist Edie Fake</a>&nbsp;(b. 1980, Evanston, IL; lives in Twentynine Palms, CA). Opening on March 25, 2025, and running through March 26, 2026, in the MCA’s second floor atrium, the artwork envisions the utopian façade of a clinic for free transgender healthcare. Curated by Assistant Curator Jack Schneider,&nbsp;The Free Clinic&nbsp;is a large-scale architectural representation of a clinic, whose prismatic colors reflect the full spectrum of gender expression beyond the binary. It confronts widespread political efforts to restrain, scapegoat, and repress transgender and nonbinary people in the United States, an issue that is personal to Fake. To him, “gender affirming care has been hard-won and life-changing . . . this mural is meant to meet the threat—and often reality—that has positioned gender affirming care as scarce, under-resourced, and underground with an aspirational and celebratory vision.”&nbsp; The installation coincides, and is in conversation with,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=f9f0473f52&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago</a>, an upcoming exhibition at the MCA opening on July 5, 2025, also curated by Schneider.&nbsp;City in a Garden&nbsp;examines Chicago's underacknowledged role in the histories of queer art and activism beginning in the 1980s, when activists radically mobilized in response to the US government’s disastrous handling of the AIDS crisis and reclaimed the historically pejorative epithet “queer” as a liberatory term encompassing all who purposefully deviate from heteronormative society. With works drawn from the MCA Collection and other local collections, the exhibition features over thirty artists—including Fake. Edie Fake’s work has previously been exhibited at the MCA in&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=8cfda8f3de&amp;e=95b957c616" target="_blank">Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now</a>&nbsp;(2021). Atrium Project: Edie Fake&nbsp;is curated by Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator.&nbsp; ABOUT THE ARTIST Edie Fake’s (b. 1980, Evanston, IL; lives in Twentynine Palms, CA)&nbsp;multimedia work—drawings, paintings, installations, comics, books, and zines—has been exhibited in solo shows at Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; and in New York City at The Drawing Center, Broadway Gallery, and Marlborough Gallery. Fake recently exhibited publications, paintings, and a large wall installation in&nbsp;Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now&nbsp;at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. His 2018 show at Western Exhibitions was reviewed in Art in America. Fake’s work is held in the collections of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library &amp; Museum, Columbus; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; RISD Museum, Providence; KADIST, San Francisco; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He was one of the first recipients of Printed Matter’s Awards for Artists, and his Gaylord Phoenix collection of comics won the 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. His work has been written about and featured in&nbsp;Artforum, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Art News, Art 21, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, The Comics Journal, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Fake’s work is held in the collections of the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, KADIST in San Francisco, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS. Edie fake was born in Chicagoland in 1980 and received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. Fake is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Broadway Gallery in New York, and he currently lives and works in Twentynine Palms, California.

Atrium Project: Edie Fake

Perspective Gallery is pleased to announce LENS 2026, our 16th annual juried international exhibition of fine art photography. Photographers are invited to submit work for possible inclusion in the exhibition. All subject matter and photographic processes, except AI, are welcome.

LENS 2026

Volume Gallery's new location, 1700 W Hubbard, Chicago, IL ﻿The Heresy of Legacy, the first exhibition at Volume Gallery’s new, expanded, space, explores the cyclical nature of movements and currents in art, architecture, and design—how innovation emerges in friction with established legacies, and how heresy becomes the foundation for new canons. This group exhibition considers what happens when today’s artists engage the paradox of history: honoring the influence of the past while consciously dismantling it. Rooted in the history of the avant-garde, the exhibition acknowledges how reactionary moves have continually propelled art, architecture, and design forward. More about the exhibition&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ymlps3.com/2f31amjheaoaeqmbsatauuhbarajmjew/click.php" target="_blank">here.</a>&nbsp;

The Heresy of Legacy

<a style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.21cchicago.com/" target="_blank">21c Museum Hotel Chicago</a>&nbsp;is unveiling a new exhibition with&nbsp;Truth or Dare: A Reality Show. The exhibition opens to the public on March 15, 2025, and remains on view until March 2026 throughout the 21c Chicago gallery spaces. At a hotel where curiosity shapes every experience, the latest exhibition presents a thematic group exhibition of 70 multimedia artworks by 52 artists from across the globe exploring the slippery terrain between fact and fiction.&nbsp;Truth or Dare&nbsp;features works by artists Jorge Méndez Blake, Leandro Erlich, Vibha Galhotra, Jane Hammonds, Ann Hamilton, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Pedro Reyes, Federico Solmi, Siebren Versteeg, and many others, including Chicago-based photographer Laura Letinsky.Located in Chicago’s vibrant River North neighborhood,&nbsp;Truth or Dare: A Reality Show&nbsp;opens to the public with a reception on Friday, March 21stfrom 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. An introduction to the exhibition by 21c Museum Hotel’s Chief Curator, Alice Gray Stites, will be followed by a presentation by featured artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at 7 p.m. The world-class museum is free and open 24/7, 365 days a year.“Highlighting uncertainty and contradiction, the artworks featured in&nbsp;Truth or Dare: A Reality Show&nbsp;emphasize the importance of questioning both knowledge and belief by utilizing illusion to entice, entertain, and explore the contemporary relationship between fact and fiction, presence and absence, reality and imagination,” said Alice Gray Stites, Chief Curator of 21c Museum Hotels.The suspension of disbelief is invoked in works that simulate games, maps, and tricks of the eye and hand, to engage and connect. A ping-pong table altered with a mirror for a game of one-on-one by Trong Gia Nguyen, a gravity-defying black rectangle modeled on the alien monolith in Stanley Kubrick's&nbsp;2001: A Space Odyssey&nbsp;by Josh Azzarella, and Charles Matton's hologram figure projected in a miniature library are at once playful and prescient critiques of how and where we search for knowledge and meaning. Anthony Adcock's steel&nbsp;Column&nbsp;is actually oil paint on wood; Addie Wagenknecht's flower vase is crafted from 3D printed Liberator guns; and Paolo Ventura's detailed photographs of scale models suggest that nothing is as it seems. Alejandro Almanza Pereda's dynamic video reimagines a Caravaggio still life under water, where fruit, glasses, and flatware rise and fall, defying a fixed arrangement.Collapsing the immediate distance between what is seen and what is known, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s&nbsp;Zero Noon&nbsp;is a clock that runs on internet-refreshed statistics, conflating time and data into a screen-based experience of consumption. Drawing on hundreds of sources, the clock tells the local time based on various metrics, such as the average number of daily human breaths, the number of firearms produced in the U.S. per day, the number of cups of tea drunk in the UK, etc. Each day at noon, the clock resets, and the numbers all revert to zero, ever so briefly suspending the exponential onslaught of these indices of activity worldwide.&nbsp;The new exhibition highlights the global contemporary environment available in 21c Chicago’s expansive and art-filled event spaces. The unique spaces offer an opportunity to gather creatively, with the capacity to host gatherings from 10 to 300. Named a Gold Medal Winner in the Best Boutique Hotel and Best Décor categories of Northstar Meetings Group’s annual awards, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago encourages curiosity and collaboration for all events.&nbsp; About the ArtistRafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival, and animatronics, his light and shadow works are "antimonuments for alien agency". He was the first artist to represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition at Palazzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at Biennials in Cuenca, Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Melbourne NGV, Moscow, New Orleans, New York ICP, Seoul, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Wuzhen.&nbsp;Collections holding his work include MoMA and Guggenheim in New York, TATE in London, MAC and MBAM in Montreal, Jumex, and MUAC in Mexico City, DAROS in Zurich, MONA in Hobart, 21C Museum in Kanazawa, Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, CIFO in Miami, MAG in Manchester, SFMOMA in San Francisco, ZKM in Karlsruhe, SAM in Singapore and many others. About 21c Museum Hotels21c Museum is a multi-venue museum located in seven cities. One of the largest contemporary art museums in the U.S., and North America’s only collecting museum dedicated solely to art of the 21st century, each property features exhibition space open free of charge to the public, combined with a boutique hotel and restaurant. It was founded in 2006 by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson; philanthropists, preservationists, and collectors, committed to expanding access to contemporary art as a means of catalyzing revitalization and civic connection. 21c presents a range of arts programming curated by Museum Director, Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites, including both solo and group exhibitions that reflect the global nature of art today, as well as site-specific, commissioned installations, and a variety of cultural events. The organization collaborates on arts initiatives with artists and organizations worldwide, including Speed Art Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Artadia, Creative Time, For Freedoms, and others. About 21c Museum Hotel Chicago&nbsp;Located steps from the famous Magnificent Mile shopping district in River North, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago offers an art-filled escape in the heart of the city. The 297-room hotel, with 106 suites, boasts extraordinary contemporary art with a multi-venue museum that provides curated exhibitions and cultural programming for both visitors and the local community. For a perfect night out in River North, the hotel’s signature restaurant, Lure Fishbar, provides world-class seafood and sushi, premium steaks, burgers, craft cocktails, and more. Recently awarded the Northstar Meetings Group Gold Medal Award for the Best Boutique Hotel and Best Décor in the Midwest, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago’s art-filled event spaces offer inspiration for creative gatherings for groups ranging from 10 to 300. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.21cchicago.com/" target="_blank">https://www.21cchicago.com/</a>.&nbsp; Image: Valerie Hegarty, Still Lives with Crows, 2006

Calendar

Chicago Gallery News