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

Join us for our Halloween Masquerade Closing Reception for our "Got Rhythm" Exhibition. Greg Allen of Animal Records will be spinning some of our favorite tunes from the 80s and 90s on vinyl. See the "Got Rhythm" Exhibition one last time, as the event will also serve as the closing reception. Costumes encouraged! Family friendly event.&nbsp; Image: "Masquerade," Sarah Kaiser

Masquerade Closing Reception 

Elise Seigenthaler Gallery is pleased to present&nbsp;No Such Thing, an exhibition of eight medium-format photographs by Chicago-based artist Nolis Anderson. Anderson’s first show with the gallery,&nbsp;No Such Thing brings together a series of works that consider the idea of perfection through the lens of portraiture and material process.&nbsp;Shot over the course of three years, this series of work represents Anderson’s desire to shift away from the clean, intentional, and manicured visual language that had come to define his photography. Each image grew from a conversation with the subject about the role of perfection in their creative practice, which expanded into questions of self-image, lived experience, and personal understanding of what constitutes perfection, how it shapes our relationship to the act of existing. Excerpts from the conversations accompany the photographs in a zine, bringing the multiplicity of Anderson’s subjects’ perspectives into relation with his images.The material qualities of each photograph are central to the exhibition. Rather than meticulously controlling every element of the photographic and development process, Anderson has allowed the unpredictability and imperfections inherent to working with film fold in to the rich beauty of his imagery. Erratic scratch marks, dust, and squiggles dance across the surface of certain photographs while in others ghostly, shimmering rays of white light envelop the subjects. Faint, spectral shapes irregularly dot the images, imbuing them with a textural depth that complicates any expectation that a photograph should feel impeccably neat and fully resolved. Rather than treating these effects as flaws, Anderson embraces each unexpected mark or blemish and incorporates it into the finished image, reflecting his interest in the space between intention and accident. Image: NOLIS ANDERSON, SA, 2026, Archival pigment print, 34 x 26 in, 86.36 x 66.04 cm

Nolis Anderson: No Such Thing

The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to our upcoming exhibition, <a href="https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions/whispers-dark-curated-azul-alberto-nogueron" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Whispers in the Dark | Curated by Azul Alberto Nogueron</a>. The exhibition will be on display from September 26 - November 1, 2026 with an opening reception on Sunday, September 27, 1-3pm that will be free and open to the public. <a href="https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions/whispers-dark-curated-azul-alberto-nogueron" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Whispers in the Dark</a> is the final exhibition curated by Azul Alberto Nogueron as part of their time as the EAC's COMPASS Resident. Secrecy, hidden agendas, and mental health are the key components of the exhibition, with a celebration of the macabre. The COMPASS Curator Residency provides an emerging curator with an opportunity to curate three shows in the Evanston Art Center’s Lobby Gallery space. The EAC’s Lobby Gallery is a space dedicated to exhibiting emerging and underrepresented artists/curators and responds to current social events. This dynamic and inclusive space draws in new curators, artists, and audiences.&nbsp;

Whispers in the Dark

&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hyde Park Art Center</a>, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, announces&nbsp;Ground Floor, the ninth iteration of the Art Center’s biennial program showcasing select work by recent graduates from each of Chicago’s five MFA (Master of Fine Art) programs, on view from&nbsp;August 9 – November 1, 2026.&nbsp;The exhibition opens on the Art Center’s quarterly open house day,&nbsp;Center Day, with free public programs including artmaking from&nbsp;1-4 p.m.The exhibition offers a single destination to view some of Chicago’s most promising emerging talent who graduated in 2025-26 from one of Chicago’s five MFA programs: Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The University of Chicago, and The University of Illinois at Chicago. Artists represented in&nbsp;Ground Floor&nbsp;include&nbsp;<a href="http://lamiaabukhadra.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lamia Abukhadra</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://gabriellebanks.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gabby Banks</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://claireburkedain.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Claire Burke Dain</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://ricardodelima.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ricardo De Lima</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://emmadifani.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emma Difani</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://naakitafk.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">naakita f.k.</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://aidanannefrierson.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aidan Anne Frierson</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.laveengammie.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Laveen Gammie</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://laurelhauge.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Laurel Hauge</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://lianghestudio.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Liang He</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://xingyuhuang.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Xingyu Huang</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://susanjablonski.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Susan Jablonski</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://yingfeiliang.wixsite.com/fayeliang" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Faye Yingfei Liang</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://mauriciolopezf.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mauricio López F.</a>, Isaiah McDaniel,&nbsp;<a href="http://tepalandjian.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Te Palandjian</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breannarobinson.studio/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Breanna Nannette Robinson</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://reneeroyale.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Renee Royale</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://kianashahnia.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kiana Shahnia</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://nanakokono-rolly.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nanako Wagley</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.judsonwomack.com/#1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Judson Womack</a>.Ground Floor&nbsp;presents the work of select graduates made in the past two years to articulate conceptual and stylistic trends coming out of Chicago art schools right now. Their modes of making range the full spectrum in media, from painting and printmaking to film and sculpture.&nbsp;The artists share their excitement about the opportunity and why it is meaningful at this moment in their practices: "Over the years, I’ve known many artists whose careers and practices have been deeply impacted by this exhibition, and I’ve always seen it as an incredible resource and opportunity for artists navigating life after graduate school. I’ve been connected to the Art Center in many ways—as a South Sider, a visitor, an artist, and coordinator of the Center Program—long before this exhibition. To now have the honor of exhibiting my own work alongside so many other artists feels like a homecoming moment," says&nbsp;Aidan Anne Frierson.&nbsp;And&nbsp;Emma Difani&nbsp;shared: “While graduate school was a period of tremendous growth, it was also a bit of a bubble. This is an exciting opportunity to build relationships outside of the academic setting in a place for art-as-lived that celebrates artists of all ages and stages.”&nbsp;Xingyu Huang&nbsp;said, “For me, this opportunity to show my work on the building facade is an invitation to reimagine the boundaries we build between ourselves and the living world. My work challenges the idea that urban environments and ecological processes are separate by bringing attention to aquatic systems within exhibit spaces. It’s incredibly exciting to create a space at HPAC where audiences can physically confront these invisible, shared dependencies and realize we are entirely continuous with our environment.”The exhibition opening day overlaps with the summer installment of the Art Center’s quarterly series&nbsp;Center Day, an all-ages program offering free public access to art viewing and artmaking, from&nbsp;1-4 p.m.&nbsp;The August 9 programming includes exhibition receptions for three exhibitions (Jeff Carter: The Singer Pavilion Project&nbsp;and&nbsp;OFF THE WALL!, in addition to&nbsp;Ground Floor) from 1-4 p.m., a mural workshop from 1-4 p.m., Chicago Housing Authority mural unveiling from 1-1:30 p.m., a teen artist panel from 1:30-2 p.m., a basket weaving workshop led by Art Center resident artist ebere agwuncha from 1-3 p.m., and open studios from 1-4 p.m. with resident artists (ebere agwuncha, Carlos Flores, Cydney M. Lewis, Pooja Pittie, Fidencio Fifield-Perez, Anwulika Anigbo, D. Lammie-Hanson, Jess Atieno, Laveen Gammie, and Tongji Philip Qian). About Ground Floor 2026Ground Floor—so named because it provides a crucial platform for rising artists and traverses the entire lower level of the Art Center—gives exhibiting artists a major public venue in which to display their works at a critical juncture in their careers, helping to build, support, and ensure a strong and vibrant community of artists in Chicago.The 21 artists in the exhibition were selected by the Art Center’s&nbsp;Ground FloorSelection Committee from a competitive pool of applicants who were nominated by respected Chicago-based artists, curators, and administrators. The 2026 jury committee includes nationally and internationally renowned artists, curators,&nbsp;and educators Cecilia Beaven, Amber Ginsburg, Sherwin Ovid, Lorelei Stewart, and Jade Yumang. The exhibition is curated by Director of Exhibitions and Residency, Mariela Acuña, and Exhibitions and Residency Manager, Tran Tran. The exhibition is enriched with further insight into these artists’ practices by didactic text by writer and curator Nicky Ni. A few notable Ground Floor alumni include Jonathan Castillo, Hai-Wen Lin, Tony Lewis, Maria Gaspar, Norman Teague, and Melissa Leandro.This exhibition is generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Illinois Arts Council, and The Joyce Foundation. ABOUT THE HYDE PARK ART CENTERHyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; 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 connects 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, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.hydeparkart.org</a>.

Ground Floor

Virtual Artist’s Talk:&nbsp;Thursday Oct. 15th, 7 PMRegister&nbsp;<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/NqM_u15avjU?e=49b9939ea4&amp;c2id=50b0bcd76dd70262de19b41666dd6e34" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);" target="_blank">here</a>Perspective Gallery is proud to present a new show by fine art photographer, Alexa Frangos. Titled (Re)arranging, the work finds inspiration in her daughter’s hands, using photo-collage to imagine them reassembling what is broken. Playful and performative, the work both looks back to Surrealist photography of the 1920s and 1930s and forward to the potential of today’s younger generations to create a more beautiful world.&nbsp;(Re)arranging opens on Thursday, October 1, with a public reception on Saturday, October 3 from 5 p.m.- 7:00 p.m. Alexa will give an artist’s talk on Thursday October 15th and the show will close on Sunday, November 1st.

(Re)arranging

Jackson Junge Gallery is pleased to present their fourth solo exhibition of the year, LINGERING STARDUST, featuring the artwork of Chicago oil painter, Laura Haberer. This expressive collection sheds light on interiors across Chicago and in doing so constructs a portrait of our shared lives. By omitting human subjects, the viewer is made to consider the influence of humanity on the mutual spaces we occupy. The essence of the architecture we exist within is imbued with the stories of each passing face, their light a refraction which reverberates through the ages, all the way back to the stars from which we all came. Haberer’s calling to begin a career as a painter was born of her desire to find connection and belonging within a contemporary world that felt disoriented in the wake of the pandemic. While quarantine caused a shift in all our interpersonal relationships, Haberer was uniquely impacted as a professional psychotherapist. Having to alter her practice to limit face-to-face interaction, she felt that those relationships which were so crucial to her personal and professional worlds were farther away than ever before. This feeling of distance caused her to consider ways that she could bring herself closer to the world around her. In doing so, only six years ago, she began to paint. Since that time, Haberer has taken to a range of subject matter, from landscapes to portraiture, but finds that interiors have a unique ability to tell stories. After gaining the confidence to take her practice out into urban environments beyond her own home, she felt called to paint places and objects which hold a depth of communal history. “I find home with people, that first was represented for me in my own living room,” she says of her previous work depicting interiors. “I think as I started to look around more, I realized that home exists wherever we are.” LINGERING STARDUST is a continuation of Haberer’s unending goal to express our connected lives, zooming outward beyond the individual’s environment to include transient areas. Cafes, cultural centers, antique stores, and open houses are communal spaces which feel the activity of so many unique lives every day. The significance of these spaces as a connective force cannot be overlooked in an urban environment whose infrastructure is increasingly tailored to individualism. In divorcing these spaces from any of the people that would typically inhabit them, a mutual past emerges which ties together all their occupants across time. There is a feeling of quiet wisdom that resonates throughout architecture that has been a historical meeting place for generations. In Haberer’s depiction of the Chicago Cultural Center, ELYSIAN LIGHT, this sentiment is expressed with great intricacy. The specificity of such ornate decorative architecture as the Preston Bradley Hall Tiffany Dome is not lost on her brush. She lovingly captures the mosaics which have adorned the walls since the Cultural Center’s opening to the public in 1897, originally as the first Chicago Public Library, with great detail. These subtleties cause her audience to consider the lives of those who spent their time building that architecture, and how many have experienced that handiwork during its 129-year lifespan. In the same stroke, the gentleness and warmth she introduces to the space allows the viewer to see a site softened by time, basking in the wonder of all who have travelled through. The reverence that Haberer’s audience feels while viewing these works is inherent in the subject matter she chooses to paint. She finds that soft light in combination with antique objects reveals an emotional quality that draws her toward painting these spaces. “It [light] encircles everything inside the room. And all those things inside the room are symbols of lives lived. All the nooks and crannies are as complicated as the humans they represent.” This sentiment is evident in the piece WALLS TELL STORIES, a depiction of her childhood friend’s home as it is being shown for sale. While the light dancing on its centerpiece, a piano, feels representative of that family’s connection from father to young son through music, it also feels as if it is waiting for the arrival of a new tenant to build a different kind of sanctuary in the space, as many families had before them. This exercise in observing the intimate details that make a place feel like home is contrasted by its sister piece, TO LEAVE A PLACE, which also uses an apartment on the market as reference. With its heavily staged furniture and distant composition, the audience is made to feel as though the signifiers of home are packed up in boxes, while the surrounding walls remain steeped in the warm afterglow of loving memories. In Haberer’s eyes, the spaces and the objects in them are separable from each other, but inseparable from the influence that humans have on them. Since becoming a new mother, she empathizes with how generations of familial interaction are internalized by everyday domestic objects, even as they are separated from homes. The way that light refracts off rust, cracks, and weathered enamel is illustrated with just as much glory as intentional decoration. “I couldn’t help but think of all the children bathed in those bathtubs and all of the mothers bathing those children in those bathtubs...” she says of painting NOSTLAGIA, whose subject is defunct bathroom fixtures found at Salvage One, an architectural salvage shop in West Town. “That experience of bathing your child is no different than it was 500 years ago, than it was 50,000 years ago.” Laura Haberer offers a similar treatment to the atmosphere of each piece in the LINGERING STARDUST collection. Through visually softening each space she depicts, dappling light across each interior, she diffuses those edges that form physical boundaries and highlights the intricacies of each space simultaneously. In doing so, she can show us a microcosm of the ever-evolving character of our world. “My understanding of human nature is that it is incredibly complex. Not black and white. The only universality to it is that everyone is complicated. What I’m trying to evoke is that nothing is concrete.” The softness expressed across Haberer’s body of work is a facet of that same philosophy, that despite the unique qualities of every individual, the separation between each of us is lesser than we often perceive. “Those lines are blurred if we let them be.” LINGERING STARDUST will be on view at Jackson Junge Gallery from September 21st –November 1st 2026. The gallery will be holding the exhibition’s opening reception on Friday, September 25th, from 6 pm - 9 pm, free and open to the public. It is curated by Owner Chris Jackson, Gallery Director Kaitlyn Miller and Gallery Assistant Allison Freeman.

LINGERING STARDUST

Told from the point of view of Sansei (third generation) Japanese Americans, Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy is an exhibition of eight artists whose work reflects on the effect of EO9066 (The law ordered the forced imprisonment of all Japanese Americans living on the west coast of the United States) as it resonated from generation to generation. While several of the artists in Resilience employ traditional Japanese methods in the construction of their work—Lydia Nakashima Degarrod’s use of boro stitching on her works on paper; Na Omi Judy Shintani’s kimono cutouts honored in ceramic vessels—others use iconography relating to Japanese culture as a jumping-off point for personal explorations on the subject of the incarceration camps—Reiko Fujii’s photographs-as-kimono; Wendy Maruyama’s columns of replicated camp ID tags. Each in their own way, the artists in this exhibition express moments of deeply felt pain and reluctant acceptance, emotions which were often withheld by their elders. Exhibition artists are: Kristine Aono, Reiko Fujii, Wendy Maruyama, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Tom Nakashima, Roger Shimomura, Na Omi Judy Shintani, and Jerry Takigawa.

Resilience: A Sansei Sense of Legacy

Opening Reception:&nbsp;Saturday, September 12, 2026, 4pm — 7pm (the gallery will be open 12pm — 7pm)Artist Talk: 4pm&nbsp;About the exhibitionThe Renaissance Society and Fondazione In Between Art Film present&nbsp;Tendered, a solo exhibition by Karimah Ashadu, whose moving-image practice examines the conditions under which bodies are rendered legible within contemporary systems of labor and value, especially within the cultural context of Nigeria and its diaspora.Karimah Ashadu: Tendered&nbsp;will be on view at the Renaissance Society in Chicago from September 12 - November 1, 2026.&nbsp;Working across film and installation, Ashadu develops close, sustained encounters with people whose lives unfold within informal economies, attending to how aspirations are negotiated under material constraint.&nbsp;The exhibition marks the U.S. debut of&nbsp;MUSCLE,&nbsp;a new moving image installation co-commissioned and co-produced by the Renaissance Society, Fondazione In Between Art Film, and Camden Art Centre. Centered on bodybuilders training in the heart of Lagos’s slums, the work situates bodybuilding within a broader field of exertion: the body as site of labor, autonomy, and self-fashioning.&nbsp;MUSCLE&nbsp;is accompanied by a series of new sculptural works,&nbsp;Pure Rugged Water (2025),that draw directly from the film’s environments.Having grown up between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, the artist situates her point of view within a constant negotiation of distance. In&nbsp;MUSCLE, she works with a sympathetic—and sometimes visceral—proximity to the subjects of the film, eschewing the documentary point of view. As she gathers the stories of men in this film, she extends an ongoing inquiry present in earlier works, including&nbsp;Machine Boys&nbsp;(2024) (on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 11&nbsp;—&nbsp;November 1, 2026),Plateau&nbsp;(2022), and&nbsp;Red Gold&nbsp;(2016).&nbsp;The exhibition is organized within the framework of&nbsp;Unison, a biennial initiative established by the Fondazione In Between Art Film to commission and produce moving image-based exhibitions in collaboration with international institutions.&nbsp; PublicationTendered9.76 x 12.79 inches168 Pages&nbsp;ISBN: 9788867497089&nbsp;&nbsp;Tendered&nbsp;is accompanied by the first reference monograph dedicated to the artist, edited by Bianca Stoppani,&nbsp;curator for the editorial and discursive programmes&nbsp;at&nbsp;Fondazione In Between Art Film, with Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi. Published by Mousse, the monograph&nbsp;features contributions from Karimah Ashadu; Myriam Ben Salah, director and chief curator at The Renaissance Society,&nbsp;Chicago; Leonardo Bigazzi, curator at Fondazione In Between Art Film; Gina Buenfeld-Murley, curator at Camden Art Centre,&nbsp;London; Martin Clark, director at Camden Art Centre, London; Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, associate professor in film, culture&nbsp;and society, UCL, London; Alessandro Rabottini, artistic director at Fondazione In Between Art Film; Bettina Steinbrügge,&nbsp;director at Mudam Luxembourg; and Arese Uwuoruya, assistant curator at Camden Art Centre. About the ArtistKARIMAH ASHADU (b. London 1985) is a British-born Nigerian artist and film director living and working between Hamburg and Lagos. Her work has been exhibited and screened at institutions internationally, including the 60th Venice Biennale, where she was awarded the Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant in the International Exhibition. Other Institutional shows and screenings include Camden Arts Centre, London, Canal Projects, New York, MoMA PS1, New York, Kunsthalle Bremen,&nbsp;Tate Modern, London, Secession, Vienna, Kunstverein in Hamburg, South London Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.&nbsp;Current&nbsp;solo shows include the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover.&nbsp;Credits&nbsp;Tendered&nbsp;is curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi of Fondazione In Between Art Film with Myriam Ben Salah and Karsten Lund for its iteration at the Renaissance Society.&nbsp;Supported by Sadie Coles HQ, LondonPure Rugged Water (2025)&nbsp;was produced with additional support of the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung.Renaissance Society programs are supported by Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.&nbsp;EventsConversations at the Edge: An Evening with Karimah AshaduThu, Sept 10, 6PMSiskel Film Center164 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60601Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute and Gene Siskel Film Center, this screening presents three other films by Karimah Ashadu—Plateau,Brown Goods, and&nbsp;King of Boys—and will be&nbsp;followed by a conversation with the artist.&nbsp;Opening Reception&nbsp;Sat, Sep 12, 4-7pm&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Screening by the African Film InstituteWith a conversation between Christian Nyampeta and Natacha NsabimanaThu, Oct 15, 7PMLogan Center for the Arts, 2nd&nbsp;Floor&nbsp;In 2019, artist and filmmaker Christian Nyampeta, who is based in New York, launched the African Film Institute, housed at e-flux. In conjunction with Karimah Ashadu’s exhibition, Nyampeta and anthropologist Natacha Nsabimana will show a film and be in conversation as part of their ongoing collaboration on the question of what is African cinema?Visit&nbsp;<a href="http://renaissancesociety.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(35, 31, 32);" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information. Image: Karimah Ashadu,&nbsp;MUSCLE, 2025 [Still] HD digital film, colour with stereo sound, 22:20 mins © Karimah Ashadu. Courtesy the Artist, Camden Art Centre, Fondazione In Between Art Film, Sadie Coles HQ and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.

Karimah Ashadu: Tendered 

Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians perform an evening of chamber music celebrating Amy Beach and Fanny Mendelssohn, two pioneering composers whose extraordinary works deserve a place at the center of the Romantic repertoire.

CSO Chamber Music: Carving Out History

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

Free First Tuesdays

Co-curator Corinne Granof leads an in-gallery conversation about the event "All the Noise and the Hurry" on Thursday, November 5, at 3:30 PM.

Curator's Talk: All the Noise and the Hurry

Block Cinema presents a newly rediscovered print of Denis Mitchell’s impressionistic BBC documentary portrait of Chicago, in its first screening in 60 years.

Chicago: First Impressions of a Great American City (1961)

The IHSAE Educator Show is scheduled to take place from September 18 to November 6, 2026, spanning a duration of 7 weeks in Room 3A. The event will commence with Open Studios on September 18, 2026.

IHSAE Educator Show

Una Vuelta a Mis Raíces (A Return to My Roots): Monochromatic Pigment Paintings by Robert Lipton SEP 18-NOV 6, 20263rd FLOOR GALLERY Inspired by the powerful materiality of abstract expressionism and contemporary masters such as Antoni Tàpies, Anselm Kiefer, and Bosco Sodi, Robert Lipton presents a series of richly textured mixed-media paintings that explore color, surface, and transformation. Built through layers of pigment and organic processes, these works invite viewers to slow down, look closely, and discover shifting landscapes of texture, depth, and form. Image: Untitled 2025 -Mixed media on canvas 66” x 41”

Una Vuelta a Mis Raíces (A Return to My Roots): Robert Lipton

Art Educator &amp; Alumni Exhibition Presented by ArtConnectED Sept 18 – Nov 6. 3rd Floor Gallery ArtConnectED understands the importance of building community and the role the arts play in bringing people together. Art Connection: Past Meets Present celebrates the enduring connections between art educators and their former students, honoring the shared creative journey that begins in the classroom and continues throughout a lifetime. This exhibition showcases the impact of mentorship, inspiration, and the lasting influence that teachers and students have on one another. Through a variety of media and artistic voices, the show highlights how creative dialogue and exploration can span years, evolve, and continue to inspire new perspectives. Awards:Awards are generously provided by BLICK Art Materials and by donations from partnering art schools, colleges, and universities. Opening ReceptionBridgeport Art Center, 3rd Floor Gallery on September 18th from 7:00-10:00P Image:Natalie Pivoney – Creekside Elementary SchoolMillennial Park – Oil on Canvas 2026 – 30W” x 20H”

Art Connection: Past Meets Present

Krasl Art Center presents&nbsp;Intervals of Mark and Matter, a group exhibition featuring KC Crow Maddox, Karen Dana Cohen, Evan Mazzelan, Amelia Mendelsohn,&nbsp;Ivan Montoya, Thương Hoài Trần, and Antonio Scott Nichols. On view from August 15 through November 7, 2026, the exhibition brings together artists whose practices approach painting through layered processes and cross-medium experimentation. Across the exhibition, painting extends past tradition. The artists work across oil, acrylic, textile, and hybrid approaches, allowing representational imagery to come together in different forms. These works speak to painting as an open field and framework that expands beyond the medium. The artists draw from personal histories and cultural references to shape works that move between intimate scale and broader social context. Figures, patterns, and textures are built up and reference individual experiences and the artists’ specific perspectives.&nbsp;&nbsp; Across the exhibition, painting becomes more than a surface; it becomes a language for relation. These images offer a portrait of contemporary painting as a living, inclusive practice, one that reflects the complex emotional and cultural landscapes of the present. Other exhibition related events:PUBLIC P<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001pSSRl7evIb86RM80nIvm5Hy9YjoYjA5bEd3F7q3w_sCHUKjU229cZXVHuroKXZrKkmofcgjUzdjvigac_nl6rwRgtRsUT6v0TZ2FjWxaiHjZB96ch0h-AsSeiUa_pgbaK-le-SmEp0PdBhBkKPgTN2w6-McHSUjpyZcQOWs5QqUHaWyykTYm1Q==&amp;c=6hib9qryNzLfZvFGK85jhGcMsJR__HdSoZYLRo1_u2hGBpzNkfW0dg==&amp;ch=UEQe7idMHjCsN8dwYdbmLQ_rS_u0IY0QRKxgrpKLSEg2V1dllVXIjw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">REVIEW PARTY</a>Friday, August 14, 20266 - 8 PM <a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001pSSRl7evIb86RM80nIvm5Hy9YjoYjA5bEd3F7q3w_sCHUKjU229cZXVHuroKXZrKtfDWvDHHFA3YKYyInWDKpr7yrejL5zZpa_F5o_v_nT8811KUx_HSd1N_CmMDec6N09F7sUmj0WD3aNhp53SYPcb9FKQYYNhinK2MluAMlugdSNG1hTGYopIdkSN_QMwR&amp;c=6hib9qryNzLfZvFGK85jhGcMsJR__HdSoZYLRo1_u2hGBpzNkfW0dg==&amp;ch=UEQe7idMHjCsN8dwYdbmLQ_rS_u0IY0QRKxgrpKLSEg2V1dllVXIjw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">COFFEE WITH THE CURATOR</a>Thursday,&nbsp;August 20, 202612 - 1 PM CLASS OFFERINGS: APPROACHES TO CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Instructors: Meli Bandera, Tami Fauver, and Nathan Margoni(5) Tuesdays, 6 - 7 PM, September 1 - 29. For more information regarding the exhibitions, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001pSSRl7evIb86RM80nIvm5Hy9YjoYjA5bEd3F7q3w_sCHUKjU229cZTgx-nBs_T0I20ArstDnjsh-3AiwkY3XB9iF1u4E9q325Qxi_Yzcs_3MRYXaqbNox3UbPVCKbepaWvuCVLs0B-YghzGV2LJiTQGs69kp-Dvp&amp;c=6hib9qryNzLfZvFGK85jhGcMsJR__HdSoZYLRo1_u2hGBpzNkfW0dg==&amp;ch=UEQe7idMHjCsN8dwYdbmLQ_rS_u0IY0QRKxgrpKLSEg2V1dllVXIjw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.krasl.org</a>. Evan Mazellan,&nbsp;Embracing Couple, Oil on canvas, 24 in. x 16 in., 2026.

Intervals of Mark and Matter 

Krasl Art Center presents a new interdisciplinary installation by Bella Kiser in the Project Space, expanding her ongoing exploration of soft architecture, a practice that uses soft sculpture and participation to consider how identity and experience shape ideas of home.&nbsp;Kiser is a mixed-race Filipino American artist from Chicago, IL, currently based in Detroit, MI. She is a graduate of Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Combined Degree Program, where she received a BFA in Studio Art and a BS in Environmental Studies. Throughout her practice, she works with wearables, textiles, and immersive environments to construct what she describes as&nbsp;fabritecture,&nbsp;a malleable, ever-changing building system shaped by sensory and emotional experience. Her work engages questions of identity, otherness, comfort, and discomfort, as well as critiques of American productivity culture, while foregrounding the physical conditions of lived experience.&nbsp;In this exhibition, Kiser also draws from the form of the&nbsp;Balikbayan Box, a package sent by overseas Filipinos to family back in the Philippines, as a conceptual reference point for thinking about container, care, distance, and return. Through soft sculpture and audience interaction, she builds environments that invite bodily experience, informing the interpretation of the work.&nbsp; Other exhibition related events:PUBLIC P<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001UBr39of_zhZbpwGpurhBfkSk8_znP-1C_6OeatmVlbgZisH0dVlz9P0eY1VGdkbj1RI3xMTfo8ZUaP4NPTPnBYveoiC0LqukjH939JJ3rtaYt8m_BKqVTU-eg46q84BzhPZJLjupHDvjnaw_7Oir1ZpMc28_6lGKqx7XfgXEj0wEuzwAmaJEyQ==&amp;c=fiKcx2h_nBWAS4xnKbX2wcgC3ytmtOVOAVjva-94UWvNMn1OuqkCKg==&amp;ch=i-cMYFbz8TWdKndA4lMm5sSeTCcgFToAOAANxGBD1S3l1CTb6sOI8g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">REVIEW PARTY</a>Friday, August 14, 2026﻿﻿6 - 8 PMARTIST TALK: BELLA KISERSaturday, August 15, 202612 - 1 PM<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001UBr39of_zhZbpwGpurhBfkSk8_znP-1C_6OeatmVlbgZisH0dVlz9P0eY1VGdkbjxGAUsfPhX1V60O6mobrFrw1W78bxf_AZ4F6fAX1AbDDoKH21-9itZ-vn3mKnpa_wR4wcMBoN7FMmZXE8v9D1XkozdJr6boDkXsdi3RGJz2-NVGNEG7pltQcybDR4xdFD&amp;c=fiKcx2h_nBWAS4xnKbX2wcgC3ytmtOVOAVjva-94UWvNMn1OuqkCKg==&amp;ch=i-cMYFbz8TWdKndA4lMm5sSeTCcgFToAOAANxGBD1S3l1CTb6sOI8g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">COFFEE WITH THE CURATOR</a>Thursday,&nbsp;August 20, 202612 - 1 PMCLASS OFFERINGS: APPROACHES TO CONTEMPORARY PAINTINGInstructors: Meli Bandera, Tami Fauver, and Nathan Margoni(5) Tuesdays, 6 - 7 PM, September 1 - 29. For more information regarding the exhibitions, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001UBr39of_zhZbpwGpurhBfkSk8_znP-1C_6OeatmVlbgZisH0dVlz9BV97qIuz4gK2PyLrsJQGItl1YuGgfNx7Z7dIS3NrwpsUJG67nvBG_r1LZsrlQdKB7ogsOoYS3VAtCTnMl1Onqmnuog-FXfPb15Bn09n6WjE&amp;c=fiKcx2h_nBWAS4xnKbX2wcgC3ytmtOVOAVjva-94UWvNMn1OuqkCKg==&amp;ch=i-cMYFbz8TWdKndA4lMm5sSeTCcgFToAOAANxGBD1S3l1CTb6sOI8g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.krasl.org</a>.

In the Project Space: Balikbayan Box by Bella Kiser

Laleh Motlagh: Rooted. Uprooted. is an exhibition scheduled from September 12 to November 7, 2026. Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 5 - 8 pm.Artist talk: Saturday, September 19, 12:15 -1:30 pm The event is organized by SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art, located at 1527 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60622. In her upcoming solo exhibition, Rooted. Uprooted, Iranian-Azerbaijani American artist Laleh Motlagh presents new bodies of work exploring multicultural identity, resilience, and personal geography. Moving between the memories of her hometown of Tabriz, Iran, and her current life in Chicago, Motlagh navigates the complex realities of geopolitical displacement and belonging. Her recent work acts as a profound meditation on the enduring traumas of conflict, specifically reflecting on the devastation of the recent war, while remaining deeply present to her immediate surroundings. The studies of her houseplants that have been a key part of her practice are now interwoven in subtle ways so even as she is thinking about the war in Iran, her work still embodies the beauty and peace of plants and interior places. Motlagh’s work is so relevant to these times and reflects how many of us feel, rooted and uprooted, having to hold many realities at the same time. Expanding upon the themes of transformation and quietude established in her 2024 exhibition, Entanglement, Motlagh introduces new paintings and a series of new monoprints from the collection of her dried plant materials. These tactile works serve as visual archives of preservation, investigating the lingering lifeforces of botany and their capacity to find beauty within interior landscapes. By interweaving domestic peace with distant geopolitical unrest, Rooted. Uprooted. invites viewers to hold multiple and conflicting truths simultaneously, capturing the collective precarity of existence and the enduring pursuit of consolation. Laleh Motlagh لاله مطلق (b. Tabriz, Iran) is a Chicago-based artist and educator. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world. She has received multiple awards and recognitions. Motlagh received her MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Laleh Motlagh was one of NewCity’s Breakout Artists of 2023.

Laleh Motlagh: Rooted. Uprooted.

In Full View is an exhibition scheduled to take place from October 10 to November 7.

In Full View

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONWoman Made Gallery presents&nbsp;In Full View, a juried group exhibition of work by 47 women and non-binary artists age 65 and older. Selected by Jerry Zbiral, the exhibition explores visibility and invisibility as they relate to identity, aging, memory, and the legacy of a fully lived life.&nbsp;Working across a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, fiber, and mixed media, the artists consider what it means to be seen, overlooked, remembered, or revealed, and how those experiences shape both life and art. The work speaks to presence, resilience, personal history, and the evolving power of creative expression over time.Opening Reception:&nbsp;October 10, 2026 | 4–7 p.m.Artist Walkthrough &amp; Closing:&nbsp;November 7, 2026 | 2–4 p.m.Exhibiting Artists:&nbsp;Pánne Ally, Loraine Anderson, Laura Balombini, Jane Barrow, Marian Berg, Lindsey Berkun, Carrie Betlyn-Eder, Mary Ann Bucklin, Kathy Castleton, Laura Cerf-Dahl, Margaret Colarelli, Marie Corfield, Susan Fecho, Viktoria Ford, Tammi Franke, Amanda Freymann, Anne-Bridget Gary, Mary Gingrich, Shari Gullo, Pam Hamilton, Deborah Hirshfield, Pamela Hobbs, Ellen Holtzblatt, Judith Huacuja, Frederica Huff, Mama Coco, Jude Kallok, Ruth A. Keitz, Katherine Kraus, Phyllis Lear, Sylvia Lorraine, Darcy Lynn, Maureen May, Angela McElwain, Erin McNamara, Karen Mosbacher, Karen Musgrave, Moni Olguin, Linda Popp, Cherry Rahn, Jane Rieso, Paulette Schermerhorn, Beth Shadur, Carol Spindel, Paola Tavoletti, Mary Jane Tenerelli Janet Tsakis<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/Vdu3cazbpHK?e=a3993dd90f&amp;c2id=31024f3b516cbeaa8db35c380455cf8f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SEE THEIR WORK AND STATEMENTS</a>

Oliva Gallery presents the opening reception for Pleasure Spread, a two-person exhibitionTara Sabini and Jeremy Plotkin Wong. The exhibition brings Sabini’s maximalist oil paintings into conversation with Wong’s biomorphic ceramic sculpture, examining pleasure as something seductive, excessive, unstable, and psychologically charged. Sabini draws from the theatrical abundance of seventeenth-century Flemish still life, redirecting its proximity between luxury and mortality toward femininity. Pattern, ornament, and the body accumulate until visual abundance begins to exert pressure. Wong begins with the ceramic vessel and pushes it beyond utility, producing swelling, curling, and contorted forms whose polished surfaces remain appealing even as their anatomy becomes increasingly uncertain. Together, the artists locate pleasure at the point where attraction becomes complicated. Sabini intensifies the image until abundance begins to press back against the viewer, while Wong transforms the vessel until function gives way to something creaturely. Throughout Pleasure Spread, ornament becomes consequential and pleasure exceeds its expected boundaries. About the Artists Tara Sabini is a Chicago-based maximalist oil painter and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally, and she has participated in residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Lillstreet Art Center. Jeremy Plotkin Wong is a Chicago-based performance and sculpture artist whose interdisciplinary practice combines ceramic and sculptural form, abstraction, material experimentation, and performance. Wong received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and entered the MFA program in Ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2025.

Pleasure Spread

The West Town Art Walk is an upcoming event featuring the works of artist Patrick Jilbert. It will take place from October 2nd to November 7th. The event will showcase a variety of art pieces and installations, providing an opportunity for art enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the creativity and talent of Patrick Jilbert. Attendees can expect a vibrant and engaging experience as they walk through the art displays in West Town.

West Town Art Walk Featuring Patrick Jilbert

Oliva Gallery presents the closing reception for Pleasure Spread, featuring Tara Sabini’s maximalist oil paintings and Jeremy Plotkin Wong’s biomorphic ceramic sculpture. The exhibition explores pleasure as seductive, excessive, unstable, and psychologically charged. Sabini layers pattern, ornament, and the body until abundance becomes pressurized. Wong pushes the ceramic vessel beyond utility into swelling, contorted forms that blur the line between object and organism. Join Oliva Gallery for a final opportunity to experience Pleasure Spread before it closes. About the Artists Tara Sabini is a Chicago-based maximalist oil painter and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally, with recent residencies including Vermont Studio Center and Lillstreet Art Center. Jeremy Plotkin Wong is a Chicago-based performance and sculpture artist whose interdisciplinary practice combines sculptural form, material experimentation, abstraction, and performance. Wong received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and entered the MFA program in Ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2025.

Closing Reception: Pleasure Spread

Woman Made Gallery presents&nbsp;In Full View, a juried group exhibition of work by 47 women and non-binary artists age 65 and older. Selected by Jerry Zbiral, the exhibition explores visibility and invisibility as they relate to identity, aging, memory, and the legacy of a fully lived life.&nbsp;Working across a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, fiber, and mixed media, the artists consider what it means to be seen, overlooked, remembered, or revealed, and how those experiences shape both life and art. The work speaks to presence, resilience, personal history, and the evolving power of creative expression over time.Opening Reception:&nbsp;October 10, 2026 | 4–7 p.m.Artist Walkthrough &amp; Closing:&nbsp;November 7, 2026 | 2–4 p.m.Exhibiting Artists:&nbsp;Pánne Ally, Loraine Anderson, Laura Balombini, Jane Barrow, Marian Berg, Lindsey Berkun, Carrie Betlyn-Eder, Mary Ann Bucklin, Kathy Castleton, Laura Cerf-Dahl, Margaret Colarelli, Marie Corfield, Susan Fecho, Viktoria Ford, Tammi Franke, Amanda Freymann, Anne-Bridget Gary, Mary Gingrich, Shari Gullo, Pam Hamilton, Deborah Hirshfield, Pamela Hobbs, Ellen Holtzblatt, Judith Huacuja, Frederica Huff, Mama Coco, Jude Kallok, Ruth A. Keitz, Katherine Kraus, Phyllis Lear, Sylvia Lorraine, Darcy Lynn, Maureen May, Angela McElwain, Erin McNamara, Karen Mosbacher, Karen Musgrave, Moni Olguin, Linda Popp, Cherry Rahn, Jane Rieso, Paulette Schermerhorn, Beth Shadur, Carol Spindel, Paola Tavoletti, Mary Jane Tenerelli Janet Tsakis

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