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

We're thrilled to present&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gp/c/v2.k1.iakxLj0Nt_Ca4sVv7PUcGhS7VS4qrO4Go07WoXbjPXxMRtKdW5Dgr3TmQugv9PAh-4nAh5SX-MkhdL-eed7VHE2OGL3M17n-iohhQaQex7ByowqYf9Qjg0LqEd6CUvp7hjw7mro7aJvY0C5BRKuGLYn5Ge5uCfD2uB-SP4I8NFppapXfsM-_LuK7eZf-UtVOXu2b1PwD9kVcnoZ-DZFFASV1sgC6lO6VMVjg_JLPUqelB_zI4GijJcjJY7tYcNfEKO_e03DF9bRipCa0bJzppN6l6mMND0DXNcEEcKWFiSMLAw1rewZOyxKyVVRcVV5gdjJ1RQEYmm8Ke6JyZdtijJuLo8fssUW-Kwtb4ZOszP_KMiFB3CTCoMXC1_8phoVu1Br82eBGb41qpi0cfYAGUFKOUVww0WCPdE1kv5oaljUZTek" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">The Department of Objects</a>, our second collaboration with Jeroen Smeets of&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gm/c/v2.k1.z5w5cDxFVLkm1ya9M2UOoxmyiLoEcEUXYQpFUzO3U0WLlyNbWMqHB8qx0ZZO9FVkQHW8FtaC9Y-wCa2BMy1jGl_ouODaBKhSolqH-j2VkNcT6K5Qh6QlEKC0IZwpCxRYVZ9_TTtrZn9QpAVh-AGRWhpxtJqkgey4YvOJSNPfjIX_4bMIteROWc0EukgX3d-XQ8gRXJHo_ViTLtTm5urC-dmM2Cy5AJOzSpUJox_LhKV6-iceQqxuUW0q4Amo1qT-tjAIYva9C4gqUzs_Z5odHtHZUtPETOYeGojTlJsd8m3qvBgRg7ejw_kDRl8sVay-q3qxNltWYhXEue8vnLY4Ssu3aoFBkczPEjBlZiHXw6AMIpRte_MKdHP56hK0XMM9PQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">The Jaunt</a>. Back in February, we&nbsp;teamed up to bring&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gk/cl/v2.k1.uHhv6S6qEPuldoBZrjXt-s2cuoewXu3wv5pn41b7ZlQB6WWWC13w4hJmWlwbQqBnNkG_5GhrSqHb8wZJUfYsq-NMlfRUJqSqLl9X_BQxrduQJ-vKPsHRc-5VOD1aJivuU6dAghE-T3EB0A4bymfJ9-kZOnaUBrmI4xVWkg2ywN4wGnV__aHsMUlk4K0pRFzYtwwWrv_l57JUdfZ6eA-D7X9yvw008ssF1peqZMfaUFCTbUhC0BvXzP8oxCb159e-bqssgziQ3KxF3to4qcZY6_irZVKcFHQHtxAslb1nBGJTjFAW-0XD8XTtiCoEsPaH715ak0TPtLtksOmRTkuilzEazqTIwa09pPIdfXfCaNQfdSAAiyyBn_o00IMozixwghlyDw" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">Wyatt Hersey</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gh/cl/v2.k1.d8EAAGOCvnjeZPcGN2P2wMGu_MS-jgDeGOwPvZLW5e71Sh3J99MqaoetA8wPaderrg87pxjERh7opBY3u9MYzX3JpXtE42W2FlwE2aXj-I1EsuPT14z3FrZ7Ugw0nV71zn-UcgizRQEW-q3V2IIHsJdBYI2hr0P2_D-RA6YizflisEI3F95qUinEUCXIE-FQDYSNVT4pxCD5U37uM3v3LkCLT3OkwhLieon1DZs5iIr0iVeqLkl_Xwwu5q4vr5QDPuoepO6jkoF3a8NDkqCtamJXzYlVpNvTlAzcDMVMMvEcKU6RNH5W-bcUx3g5nQpUE__bz_FhrycRR1Uqh__tLEvQ2g0Myct8kd-qe1pRetoto0AlHVCnTRGckPcYVA1m_TLutS0" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">Melissa Lakey</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gw/c/v2.k1.3D8mUSS0zDcMCB7TT0-hKNfZBEAXNfN_abuSLk3z05AKhk1JDdiNJaCPyof7R-z03h2cYxHOuhnBRGa8nYTfMKhHs5yopTAcJcpSTSrImf6foPYqxE3x-h8I-dJTrrnD_whkp-m5uodPQ38kHLN0DF5nG58CPrXPnNhy9P_x9eYBeiu6DWlU4FPr9ZjNcNSLfqNf43oaLfO9ipitkNCTHXY3xatKNZpnVHgfs_kgtqvmZTTD4fDN2SqpbWQWqE9hIWiQW9Sa7Z1rCXk7vOyJU_WiaW6j7npNnMNKvaS5UxOyh2oLeiRf0u9IdWbwmjI8HhzrBAUwqTsnp3F7UMqO7fqQ7vYsStc-IfyuCk7RaJUhG7f6lBWH-cCS7nU2OqEmtKvtezNT" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">Esther Pearl Watson</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gk/c/v2.k1.5usjTHYRVrC42b2MUgz7vDKxq0DtJ0FzVbU3Wq3TF2fXae0CK-aUhpjfJgEYspJ4-UsxwWFMIW49RTgK6ibpl4i70_p3UZ3ixXK2JmLWQruZDAJioxbQdcGjdSQ9TLBjC9oeRz0b3sXsOCKE-VhO_Vjmffu49O5ic2yUIVBIOo8s_8bpybL17KGvPI4_xUR7Nal35J3TVSXw4WFOePPeEHh3Kz3ltW5WtF5B9Uthnyum5t3gnZOjLRlENvSpr1rmJNBMLJWX9hmhvMxVNX_Er1Xlo8ToWAsGJgxxDaIbIx9Hnjt5HosssS74bV4wfYaMV-jGgH083EkDdvf17wU0MdqJ0A5OnJQkhE2KSeU6WZKp3TPgKste9GvU-DCO9A6z_2px" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">Anna Valdez</a>&nbsp;from balmy California to the frigid tundra of the Midwest, subjecting them to a proper winter for the first time in their lives with frozen lakes, sledding, snowballs, and temperatures reaching a sublime 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The destination? The historic and picturesque&nbsp;<a href="https://links.joymachine.art/gm/cl/v2.k1.UQjkRl1sjyvTp_7BaPNzvvP4Kpgs52yGNNnmQPisqHBJqLAtl4aHA1gVRxPRF69WsREWbczlVRd4bA3exBPPL9yhDThhnPzTT5oJ8GMFM7fFuqB4FU3B16syBd2wrwGEiTKgW_l-Ore-BuplBEigX87kPVb1K-PGW-FFpYWbfhUyqACjh_CpG5TxgMSySrkY6XfII01ecTw0zzh2O3Jz0MZ0fYPgrTGGCTVFxgTiWdB_IwgLGAjBfLQXwfSKXSHLfKHDvJgAY_yB1dCAprrt5HmX40w_otO2qMFlYZfm_-vT0wWLTkYeOzmjFQ7WnW9OHQwdh1ekHiKDzaRe4FCrh37Kh_ojW7S8KkO8bn6-tHw6J1J9t2wIllGaAdCtAQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(150, 128, 255);" target="_blank">Camp Wandawega</a>, located just a short trek north of Chicago in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The artists&nbsp;joined us in the lodges, kitchens, and bunk houses of Camp Wandawega for five days of arctic magic, art making,&nbsp;and only superficial frostbite. October 23-November 21, 2026

The Department of Objects

This one person show follows artist Barbara Tinger through 5 decades! Her body of work includes: figures, still life, cityscape, painting, drawing and mixed media in both representational and abstract executions. If you love art, you will love Barbara. Her move into abstraction occurred later in life, as a rare health condition affected her vision. Come witness the talent &amp; dedication to a practice spanning so long and so varied and always given With Love, Barbara. A portion of sales will be given to The Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind.Image: Self Portrait - oil on board "16 x 24"

With Love, Barbara

The Artwork of Rupture offers a portal into the world of board game design. Featuring illustrations from the six artists behind the creation of Rupture's characters, this exhibit showcases the different ways that characters from the same universe are interpreted and brought to life. This featured collection of artist renderings and final drafts highlights the subtleties of each artist's stroke preference, color theory, lighting, and motion.&nbsp; Two opening receptions:<ul><li class="ql-indent-1">Saturday 11/14 from 3-6</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Saturday 11/21 from 3-6</li></ul> Image credit: Pat Lyne, Kate Summers, Henry Adams, Kailyn Perry, Ari Oliver, Arancia, Julia Guillory

The Artwork of Rupture

Holly Murkerson's exhibition "rough edge" will be held from October 23 to November 28, 2026, at 65GRAND gallery. The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, October 23, from 6-9 PM. The exhibition explores themes of vulnerability, transformation, and the intersection between the physical world and the body, as captured through photography. The works reflect on the dynamic between fixed and contingent states, as well as the ecological interpenetration of boundaries. The gallery is located at 3252 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, and is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 12-6 PM, and by appointment. Holly Murkerson,&nbsp;swimmer with rock, 2026, gelatin silver print, 6 3/16 x 5 11/16 inches

rough edge

Join us at Perspective Gallery in Evanston for the Opening Reception of Intertwined, an exhibition of recent work by gallery members Doug Haight and Bob Tanner on Saturday, November 7th from 5-7 PM. Long-time friends and colleagues, the work is a return for both artists from a period of "photographers block." Each piece in their exhibit is a combined diptych, one photo from each artist, containing a pair of images drawing from abstractions, exteriors, interiors, shadows, self-portraits, organic and inorganic objects, black and white and color. Doug and Bob will have an in-person artists' talk at Perspective Gallery which will take place on Thursday, November 19th at 7 PM.

Intertwined

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce a solo exhibition by Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago; lives in Chicago) for its latest&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=b49b61817e&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" target="_blank">Chicago Works</a>&nbsp;presentation, titled&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction.&nbsp;Opening on May 2, 2026, in the MCA’s Turner Gallery and closing on February 7, 2027, the exhibition presents a series of newly commissioned works that continue Cloud’s experimentation with abstraction, symbolic language and the sculptural dimensions of painting.&nbsp;Cloud challenges historical framings of abstract painting as pure and apolitical, approaching his works instead as products of their political contexts and the capitalist systems through which they circulate. Crudely constructed from wooden stretcher bars, thickly layered in painted signs, and protruding into three-dimensional space, Cloud’s sculptural paintings are objects, rather than pristine surfaces, that possess a deliberately improvisational and, in his words, “unschooled” aesthetic. The artist sources his subjects from online news outlets, often alluding to contemporary stories of suffering and tragedy through his enigmatic visual vocabulary, developed over two decades. Forms resembling snowflakes, rainbows, four-leaf clovers, hearts and hands densely cluster across his canvases, which are stapled to configurations of stretcher bars that hover between abstract structures and recognizable shapes.The new paintings made specifically for this exhibition extend these strategies while foregrounding three recent developments in Cloud’s practice: emojis, an “X”-shaped painting, and the protrusion of his works off the wall and on to the floor of the gallery. Through the use of hinges, the paintings become modular, endowed with the capacity to be folded, installed upright, and exhibited in multiple configurations. Cloud’s work embodies the slipperiness of symbols, the malleability of meaning, and the potential for freedom within ambiguity.&nbsp;Cloud will be in conversation with exhibition curator Nolan Jimbo on May 2, 2026, in the Edlis Neeson Theater.&nbsp;Mike Cloud is the 27th artist to participate in&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=dd5f8f7c3d&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" target="_blank">Chicago Works</a>, a solo exhibition series at the MCA that features artists who are shaping contemporary art in the city and beyond.&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction&nbsp;is organized by Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator. ABOUT THE ARTISTMike Cloud was born and raised in Chicago. He earned a BFA from the University of Illinois Chicago (2001) and an MFA from Yale University (2003). He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University.&nbsp;Cloud’s solo exhibitions include&nbsp;Circle Chat, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2025);&nbsp;Called Ahead, Fahrenheit Madrid (2024);&nbsp;The Myth of Education, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2018);&nbsp;Bad Faith and Universal Technique, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (2014);&nbsp;Systems, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2006); and&nbsp;Special Project: Mike Cloud, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2005). He has also participated in group exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Good Weather, Chicago; White Columns, New York; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Cloud received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024, the Richard Pousette-Dart Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ in 2023, and the Jules Guerin Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2023.At the MCA, Cloud previously participated in the group exhibition,&nbsp;The Long Dream&nbsp;(2020), and his work,&nbsp;Cycle and Stable&nbsp;(2015), resides in the museum’s collection. His work is also held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.&nbsp; SUPPORTGenerous support for&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction&nbsp;is provided by the Sandra and Jack Guthman Chicago Works Exhibition Fund. Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago, IL; lives in Chicago),&nbsp;Poison Arrows South Africa, 2026. Acrylic on canvas, hinges, pegs, rope, and watercolor tape; 48 × 47 × 75 in. (121.9 × 119.4 × 190.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Photo: Colleen Keihm.

Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction

The Sun Grows Shy (a solo exhibition by Pedro Albertini Guerra) opens this Saturday, October 17. Please join us for an opening reception from 6-9pm at 4222 W Fullerton Ave. The exhibition will be on view through November 29. Sawhorse is open every Sunday, 12-4pm &amp; by appointment.

The Sun Grows Shy

THE GROVE GALLERY PRESENTS THE SECOND-ANNUAL FOOD FOR THOUGHT EXHIBITION: A CELEBRATION OF CONTEMPORARY STILL LIFE PAINTING Opening Reception, Saturday, November 7th, 2 to 5 PM. Exhibition duration: 11/7 to 11/29 2025 EVANSTON, IL Food for Thought, 2.0 brings together a curated selection of works that masterfully capture the beauty of cuisine. The still life genre illustrates stories of meals shared, community, and breaking bread together. Such rituals are celebrated in representational paintings of food made from direct observation, which reveal tangible, poetic symphonies of color, shape and texture.

Food for Thought, 2.0

A Rare Master Print Portfolio from the Collection of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and CultureThe National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture invites you to experience a rare and historically significant work from its permanent collection: the&nbsp;Primer Centenario de la Abolición de la Esclavitud&nbsp;(First Centenary of the Abolition of Slavery) print portfolio.This limited-edition portfolio commemorates&nbsp;March 22, 1873, the date Puerto Rico formally abolished slavery. Published in 1973 to mark the centennial of this historic event, the edition consists of only&nbsp;115 print portfolios. The Museum is honored to steward&nbsp;edition number 110, preserving this important cultural and historical document for public study, education, and collective memory.This collection was generously donated to the Museum in 2023 by Diego Figueroa, whose contribution has made this rare and significant portfolio accessible to the public, scholars, and future generations.

Abolición

You’re Invited to Experience&nbsp;El Café&nbsp;Portfolio by Master Artist Rafael TufiñoThe National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture invites the public to experience&nbsp;El Café, a seminal linocut portfolio by master artist&nbsp;Rafael Tufiño—a foundational body of work rooted in community, cultural identity, and lived experience.Created between 1953 and 1954 in the barrio of Vegas Arriba, Adjuntas, one of Puerto Rico’s historic coffee-growing regions,&nbsp;El Café&nbsp;emerged from Tufiño’s immersive fieldwork among rural coffee workers. Living within the community, he documented the full cycle of coffee production—from cultivation and harvest to roasting, brewing, rest, and celebration—transforming everyday labor into a powerful visual narrative of dignity, care, and belonging.Through seven linocuts, Tufiño presents jíbaro life with intimacy and respect, emphasizing hands, bodies, and gestures rather than romanticized distance. Coffee becomes more than a crop—it is ritual, inheritance, hospitality, and cultural memory. The series culminates in a communal celebration marking the end of the harvest, where labor gives way to music, joy, and collective resilience.El Café&nbsp;stands as both an artistic and cultural document—affirming Tufiño’s belief that art should speak to the people, reflect their lives, and honor their knowledge.We invite you to visit the exhibition and encounter a profound visual meditation on Puerto Rican rural life, labor, tradition, and community—where art, history, and culture meet in everyday ritual.Collection of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (2023).Courtesy of the Rafael Tufiño Succession

Rafael Tufiño: El Café Portfolio

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Christine Laquet, Jennifer Pitts, &amp; Zachary Cahill on the Climate Crisis. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, December 1st, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. Zachary Cahill, Director of Programs and Fellowships at the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, will moderate a discussion with the 2026-2027 Gray Fellows.

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Christine Laquet, Jennifer Pitts, & Zachary Cahill on the Climate Crisis

Alejandro Mazon: Forgotten Stories: The New Baroque is an upcoming event scheduled to take place from November 6 to December 4. The event likely explores themes related to forgotten stories and the new baroque style, possibly through art, music, or cultural presentations.

Alejandro Mazon: Forgotten Stories: The New Baroque

Laura Farahzad: Good Grief

Abigail Engstrand: My Sheros is an upcoming event scheduled to take place from November 6 to December 4.

Abigail Engstrand: My Sheros

Opening reception of solo show, My Sheros. ARTIST STATEMENT:I have been working to visually document women I admire. She is my hero. She is my mother, my sister, my grandma, my friend. She is First Lady, a lawyer, librarian, author, artist, actress, representative, activist, scientist. She is ancient, she is alive. She is my daughter. She studies, protects, speaks out and sings … to me.&nbsp; I seek her out. I read, listen and look and sketch her likeness to remember. I use paint and brushes, water, and wool, sometimes silk, and sharp felting needles. I sew and draw and think a lot.&nbsp;My Shero portraits are leaves in my Feminist Family of trees, my girl garden, growing, exploring our roots and branching out. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/opening-reception-for-three-solo-shows-tickets-2003893080146" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eventbrite</a>

ARC Gallery opening reception of solo show, FORGOTTEN STORIES IN THE NEW BARROQUE. Artist Statement:My painting practices unfold like a baroque tableau: Saturated hues cascading across the surface, shadows deepening into mystery, and light breaking from the theatrical insistence. In Indian early 19th century painted photographs, I encountered a chromatic language that is both devotional and worldly – pigments that shimmer like jewels, reds that pulse with ritual fervor, blues that echo the infinite. These colors do not merely adorn; they proclaim identity, faith, and belonging with a grandeur that recalls the gilded altar pieces of another hemisphere. I draw upon a Latin American aesthetic forged in the crucible of Colonial encounters and cultural resilience. Here, color is not passive, but insurgent, a force that resists erasure and insists upon visibility. The Baroque sensibility - with its love of excess, its tension between sacred and profane, its embrace of drama – becomes the bridge between these two worlds. Indian chromatic exuberance meets Latin American intensity, producing paintings that are at once ornate and raw, theatrical yet intimate. I seek to create images that pulse with contradiction: ornament stripped into its essence, drama distilled into emotional truth. My paintings are not quiet studies but living altarpieces, where color itself becomes a protagonist. Into these works I weave vintage photographs and found objects, relics that carry the patina of time and the weight of forgotten narratives. They serve as anchors of memory, fragments of history that collide with the present, intensifying the sense of hybridism and layering the work with echoes of past lives. By merging Indian traditions of pigments with Latin American Baroque sensibility, and by embedding the tactile force of found materials, I aim to craft a visual language that speaks of resilience, hybridism, and the human desire for a persistence of memory rendered in luminous tones. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/opening-reception-for-three-solo-shows-tickets-2003893080146" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eventbrite</a>

Alejandro Mazon: FORGOTTEN STORIES IN THE NEW BARROQUE

Good Grief examines the relationship between grief and joy, loss and gain, and two generations that never had the chance to meet. Artist Laura Farahzad Mayer examines the relationship with her father and the relationship she now has with her own children, confronting ideas of loss, memory, culture and generational storytelling.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/opening-reception-for-three-solo-shows-tickets-2003893080146?aff=oddtdtcreator" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eventbrite information </a>

Laura Farahzad Mayer: Good Grief

Violet Canopy (River) by Robin Denevan, left, and Untitled (Crow and Vase) by David Kroll, rightJoin Joanna Pinsky for a guided exploration of art in River North's galleries. We’ll begin at Zolla Lieberman, where we'll see David Kroll's classically-painted images featuring unexpected still life objects in vast, imaginative landscapes. At Addington Gallery, we'll view abstractions of nature by Robin Denevan and look closely at the artist's use of encaustic wax and oil medium. We’ll conclude with a group show at Gallery Victor, featuring work by renowned Chicago artist Marcos Raya, who currently has a piece on display at the Tate Museum in London.<a href="https://uphksziab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00183ZFjC9eSeoewdC4z9F4YvWcNxhrLNFNQAWOS7RroUC9ejDpDiM7h4H4gCNVzWrUOslhCP_Tdmu52l4vIvE23AUkQlmyAsR_R-I2ZCDdDrMLRHo2K56YlL7O7psPOJme0f2MztUyx6q0ly9nif-5dTQJhxFI3sdfGdDaDG5EtFqGwh0gLgvbu_OvzoIoz12q&amp;c=3Tt6_8BHWcM-jnzItgmK2T8zG1ZD-9KNNZZCoi8CIweF8RVgncbQ4w==&amp;ch=kSIIox8wIroIJFkpahIhFiAHCmIkqzGVu72w__LrsUz872TEQdkxPA==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our website to register.</a><a href="https://uphksziab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00183ZFjC9eSeoewdC4z9F4YvWcNxhrLNFNQAWOS7RroUC9ejDpDiM7h4H4gCNVzWrUOslhCP_Tdmu52l4vIvE23AUkQlmyAsR_R-I2ZCDdDrMLRHo2K56YlL7O7psPOJme0f2MztUyx6q0ly9nif-5dTQJhxFI3sdfGdDaDG5EtFqbwgkmVc9A7y3-kD8bel2V&amp;c=3Tt6_8BHWcM-jnzItgmK2T8zG1ZD-9KNNZZCoi8CIweF8RVgncbQ4w==&amp;ch=kSIIox8wIroIJFkpahIhFiAHCmIkqzGVu72w__LrsUz872TEQdkxPA==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LEARN MORE</a>

Weekend Art Walk: River North Art Galleries

Fawn Penn researches medical and architectural history to memorialize remnants into clay reliquaries. Continuing with their lexicon of graphic motifs, this collection of new works brings a cast of animal sigils to the wrought ceramic surface. These figures contort to their frames, right angles dissolving into abstracted geometric patterns mirroring the clay canvas' edge. The corrosive iron glaze sinks deep into geological surface, a modern stone tablet relief. As a collection, Penn's work builds an architectural language of pattern and symbol, interspersed with characters translated into glyphic form. <a href="https://vsgcontemporary.com/exhibitions/31-fiasco-fawn-penn/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a>

Fiasco

In her first solo exhibition,&nbsp;Dreamwell, Detroit-based painter Gretchen Adel explores the realm of the unconscious through the symbolic language of dreams. Drawing on the associative, nonlinear logic of dreams, she explores the fluid boundaries between our inner and outer worlds, where conscious thought gives way to deeper currents of shared memory and myth.&nbsp;The works evoke the feeling of piecing together a dream from the night before. As strange recollections and familiar, everyday imagery intermingle, details become blurred, making it difficult to distinguish between what is remembered and what is imagined.&nbsp;Lush landscapes and natural elements appear throughout, pointing to the ongoing exchange between the world around us and our inner lives. The reflective surface of a lake becomes a kind of passage into the psyche, and moonlight and nightfall create an atmosphere of suspension that loosens and softens the boundaries of ordinary perception. Within each painting, figures and forms emerge and recede, suggesting multiple places and moments coexist and are unfolding on the same plane.&nbsp;Each work begins with a simple digital collage, but as Adel begins painting, the image continues to change and evolve. She rearranges figures and shifts color planes, intuitively addressing compositional challenges as they arise. Uncertainty becomes generative, allowing unexpected relationships and new meanings to surface. Images and stories unfold as they do in dreams, following loose associations rather than a predetermined sequence. Meaning is not fixed in advance but emerges through the relationships between disparate elements, making the process one of discovery.&nbsp;Adel holds a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where she was awarded the Walter B. Ford Award of Excellence Full Tuition Scholarship. Her work has been shown at Louis Buhl &amp; Co. and Scarab Club in Detroit and Lubov Gallery in New York. <a href="https://vsgcontemporary.com/exhibitions/29-dreamwell-gretchen-adel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a>

Dreamwell

R. Justin Stewart Opening co-currently in our middle gallery room on Saturday, October 17. Featuring the artwork 'OvalStar+Flower+Starfruit 0903, 2026' by R. Justin Stewart, made of felt and acrylic frame, with dimensions 35x35x4 (JSTEW009). The exhibition marks the first formal presentation at VSG of a new body of work Stewart has been developing over the past two years. This exploration will continue during Miami Art Week, where the gallery will present a solo booth of Stewart’s work at NADA Miami.&nbsp;Between Layers explores the gap between what we first perceive and what we discover when we take the time to look more closely.&nbsp;Stewart uses hundreds of layers of cut felt in contrasting colors to create sculptural forms that shift and transform as the viewer moves between distance and detail.&nbsp;At first glance, the works appear manufactured, but their creation is an exceptionally human process. Each sculpture combines digital programming, machine cutting, and the meticulous manual labor of gluing hundreds of individual layers together.&nbsp;As our lives become increasingly shaped by digital technology, Stewart’s work offers an interesting balance between the precision of machines and the human hand. Rather than removing the artist from the process, technology becomes another tool, with Stewart’s hand remaining deeply involved in every step of the work’s creation.&nbsp;<a href="https://vsgcontemporary.com/exhibitions/30-between-layers-justin-stewart/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a>

R. Justin Stewart: Between Layers

Shop local this holiday season with over 25 vendors in our historic Murphy Auditorium. Browse vintage jewelry, handcrafted goods, and unique gifts for everyone on your list.

Drie-cember Market

Laleh Motlagh: Rooted. Uprooted. is an exhibition scheduled from September 12 to December 5, 2026 (extended) 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.

This exhibition will bring together for the first time the work of two artists who have dedicated their lives, through their multifaceted artistic processes, to healing.After a life of rambling, Emery Blagdon (1907–1986) settled on his family’s homestead in Garfield Table, Nebraska. Many members of his family had been afflicted with cancer. Convinced of the healing potential of the unseen forces of the earth, Blagdon spent forty years constructing “The Healing Machine.” Using largely tin foil, masking tape, Christmas decorations, and wire, Blagdon sought to harness magnetism, electricity, and other energies to surround visitors with positive forces. JMKAC has owned “The Healing Machine” since 2004.Guadalupe Maravilla migrated to the United States from El Salvador, unaccompanied, at age eight. At thirty-six, he was diagnosed with cancer, which he links to inherited trauma. During treatment, Maravilla connected with Indigenous healing practices, including sound baths—ceremonies that harness sonic vibrations from gongs, conch shells, and other instruments to restore calm and balance and release toxins in the body. He began making sculptures, paintings, performances, and large-scale installations that incorporate found objects related to his own migration story and various gongs and bowls, which he activates to conduct sound ceremonies. Blurring art, science, and medicine, he calls these activations “healing machines.”At the Arts Center, central to the exhibition is Maravilla’s Mariposa Relámpago, a school bus that has been reimagined as a healing temple. Throughout the exhibition, the healing machines will be activated by Maravilla and various other healers, playing the sculptures to turn on and amplify the energy in the gallery—transforming the space into an immersive healing environment.For the coinciding installation at the Art Preserve, Maravilla’s El Espíritu de Mariposa Relámpago Disease Thrower, a monumental bronze snake with a butterfly head, lightning bolt, and gong, serves as a central altar. Surrounded by Blagdon’s energy-focusing paintings and a selection of Maravilla’s retablos, this installation harnesses the energy held in the shed formerly occupied by Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine,” while it is on view at the Arts Center.

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