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

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/" target="_blank">Hyde Park Art Center</a>, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is proud to announce&nbsp;Yoonshin Park: Prompt and Prompted, an exhibition highlighting the artist’s, as well as her students’, experimental ways of creating artist books that push the boundaries of what books can be. On view from&nbsp;January 24-May 10, 2026,&nbsp;the exhibition offers hands-on experiences for the audience to make their own artist books on multiple dates throughout the duration. Both the exhibition and the public programs are free and open to the public. An artist book is an artwork that reimagines or transforms the form, function, or concept of a book into an expressive medium. For more than two decades, Park has used artist books as an experimental form and conceptual space to expand what books can be. For Park, the medium offers freedom that invites alternative ways of living other aspects of life, and invites the audience to live their lives as expansively as Park defines artist books. This exhibition presents new works that further her exploration of artist books as spatial, symbolic, and participatory sites capable of engaging notions of memory, marginality, translation, and transformation. More than a creator, Park is an arts educator of the medium. Since 2019, she has been teaching courses on artist books virtually through the Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studios, and has found her practice of teaching to be as generative for her as it is for her students. The title of the exhibition refers to the reciprocal exchange that takes place in Park’s classroom. The exhibition includes artworks by 12 of Park’s students, including Kimberly Bailey, Miriam Bisby, Priya Deb, Devie Dragone, Bryne Hadnott, Rebecca Kelly, John Michael Korpal, Carol Lett, Camille Levi, Sumiah Salloum, Virginia Van Vynckt, and Max Washington. Park shares how this presentation differs from past work: “This exhibition marks a shift in my practice from intimate, book-inspired gestures to spatial and communal forms, allowing me to explore how books can extend beyond the page. I hope visitors experience the work as an invitation to engage with their own stories and with spaces—both in books and in the gallery—in new ways, noticing how meaning and connection can emerge through shared interaction.” Free public programs include the following:Wednesday, January 28, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, February 11, 1pm Artist-led workshopThursday, February 19, 6pm Artist talk with Yoonshin Park and curator Mariela AcuñaWednesday, February 25, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-throughWednesday, March 4, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, March 18, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-throughSaturday, April 4, 1-4pm Center Day workshop led by one of Park’s students, John Michael KorpalWednesday, April 8, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, April 22, 1pm Artist-led workshopWednesday, May 6, 1pm Artist-led exhibition walk-through This exhibition was curated by Mariela Acuña, art center Director of Exhibitions and Residency, and produced by Tran Tran and Liang-yu Huang, with fabrication support provided by Huang.&nbsp; <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1767717174/ilfd0yflqur2wkpapnqg.png"> ABOUT THE ARTISTBorn in Seoul, Korea, Park now resides in Chicago. She has participated in residencies including the HATCH Residency at the Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center’s Center Program. She teaches at both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Hyde Park Art Center, and in 2024, served as curator and facilitator for the Hyde Park Art Center’s Bridge Program. Park has exhibited at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Center Gallery, Beverly Arts Center, Evanston Art Center, Riverside Art Center, Pablo Center and the AIR SPACE at Saint Kate Hotel in Wisconsin, and Simyo Gallery in Seoul, Korea, among others. She is represented by Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. 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; 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>.

Yoonshin Park: Prompt and Prompted

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/a-beautiful-experience/?utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_TAgiwr9CcUCqp8PARBnetZDmy4oA4M6rKVEblEJGj0fYaKmL0n8Naot67z_PVofiAcW7Sb0wnbX5AHJQODsWXa0U2UYeyKUnYSDhaHXxDMn2lHxQ&amp;_hsmi=343424237&amp;utm_content=343424237&amp;utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Details</a> A Beautiful Experience: The Midwest Grotto Tradition&nbsp;takes its title from a slogan found on years of brochures, maps, and swag from the Dickeyville Grotto in Wisconsin. It is one of several grottoes found throughout the region. These sites began to inspire pilgrimage, tourism, reflection, and community gathering during the 1910s. This exhibition looks at their continuing influence on artists and visitors alike. Materially, midwestern grottoes often reflect local industries, decorative trends, and an area’s geological makeup. Grotto architecture mainly comprises concrete embellished with objects including shells, marbles, colored glass, toys, figurines, fossils, and geodes. This accumulation, as well as the objects incorporated, creates a documentation of the maker’s life, faith, and home. Madeline Buol is one of the few known women grotto builders. The materials she utilized include figurines and stones gathered during her travels. She had a special affinity for shells of all shapes and sizes. The exhibition is the first public showing of Buol’s monumental thirteen-piece grotto since it was saved from the artist’s yard in 2011 by the Kohler Foundation, Inc. It was then gifted to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. In addition to Buol’s grotto,&nbsp;A Beautiful Experience&nbsp;includes objects related to the Midwest grottoes that directly inspired her, such as the Dickeyville Grotto, Jacob Baker’s “dream houses,” the Rudolph Grotto, and the Wegner Grotto. The exhibition illustrates the material histories of these grottoes and strategies for their conservation. Visitors are offered opportunities to learn about the legacy and care of Midwest grotto sites. A Beautiful Experience&nbsp;also includes new work by Stephanie Shih and E. Saffronia Downing, each responding to the grotto tradition. Shih presents a work inspired by Jacob Baker and Chinese immigration in the U.S. Downing shares her explorations of clay and material foraging throughout the Midwest, providing insight into material studies for the concrete and construction materials often invented and improvised upon by grotto builders. Image: Madeline Buol, Buol Grotto and Sculptures (site view, n.d.), Dubuque, IA, 1946–c. 1960. Photo courtesy of Pam Mendenhall.

A Beautiful Experience: The Midwest Grotto Tradition

Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago (MoCP) announces its next exhibition,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mocp.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9e4250b7536dc23e9352b28ee&amp;id=1157c0cf86&amp;e=58cea278c7" target="_blank">MoCP at Fifty: Collecting Through the Decades</a>, on view January 22-May 16, 2026. As we enter the new year, MoCP celebrates its 50th anniversary. Since opening in 1976 and initiating collecting in 1979, MoCP has acquired over 18,000 objects by more than 2,000 artists, representing a broad scope of aesthetics, technologies, and processes. The variety of artworks collected has allowed the museum to engage in conversations across political, social, and cultural landscapes. To celebrate this milestone,&nbsp;MoCP at Fifty&nbsp;examines the evolving practice of building a dynamic collection, presenting a range of objects, from the rarely exhibited to newly acquired works. Together, these selections question and reflect on the role cultural institutions play in shaping the photographic canon. Each of the museum’s five galleries represents a decade of collecting, beginning with the most recent acquisitions (2016-2026) in the first gallery, then moving backwards through time. “Over five decades, the MoCP has built a collection that traces shifting cultural, political, and visual histories. This moment allows us to look back with reflection and celebrate our holdings, knowing that every photograph we steward becomes part of a larger conversation about how images shape our understanding of the world.” Karen Irvine, Chief Curator and Deputy Director Looking at MoCP’s collection decade by decade is as much an archive of history as it is of art. Collections are fluid, often evolving in ways that mirror the values and trends of society at large. The first decades are noticeably missing many women and artists of color, not because such artists were not making work at the time, but because cultural institutions had yet to fully consider the value of varied perspectives and forms of practice. The later decades were collected with intention, not only of addressing gaps in representation, but to embrace conceptual works and works that push the boundary of what defines “photography,” in the process expanding, innovating, and redefining what a photography museum can offer the public. This exhibition displays over 100 objects from the MoCP collection. Featured artists include: Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Barbara Crane (American, 1928–2019), Matthew Finley (American, b. 1972), Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953), Yasuhiro Ishimoto (Japanese American, 1921-2012), Dayanita Singh (Indian, b.1961), Bob Thall (American, b. 1948), Carlotta Corpron (American, 1901-1988), and various others. Uta Barth, Field #3, 1995; printed 2021. 2021:244

MoCP at 50: Collecting Through the Decades

Sale 6503<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://freemansauction.com/auctions/6503-modern-design?page=1&amp;per=48&amp;tab=overview" target="_blank">Modern Design</a> May 20, 2026&nbsp;11:00AM CT<h2> </h2>Live / Chicago

Modern Design

Sale 6502 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://freemansauction.com/auctions/6502-early-20th-century-design?page=1&amp;per=48&amp;tab=overview" target="_blank">Early 20th Century Design</a> May 20, 2026&nbsp;10:00AM CT<h2> </h2>Live / Chicago

Early 20th Century Design

Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present brings together over 40 works by 36 contemporary artists from across Latin America. The exhibition confronts the enduring structures of dispossession in the Americas from colonization to the present day. Featured artists challenge histories of extraction and violence while reclaiming narratives of land, body, and cultural memory. Curated by Jonathan D. Katz, Associate Professor of Practice, History of Art and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and Eduardo Carrera, this exhibition is presented by Alphawood Exhibitions.

Dispossessions in the Americas

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce the Chicago presentation of&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=01546b90d5&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">Firelei Báez</a>, the first North American survey exhibition of the artist (b.1980, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; lives in New York) running from November 15, 2025, to May 31, 2026. Spanning two decades of Báez’s spirited practice, this landmark exhibition showcases her vibrant and captivating paintings and installations. Through a bold visual language that blends folklore, fantasy, mythology and science fiction, Báez constructs layered worlds that challenge dominant historical narratives and unsettle the often-fixed categories of race, gender and nationality. In this exhibition, Báez also emphasizes resilience and creative agency, especially among marginalized communities who have always found ways to create refuge and power in defiance of systems of repression.Known for her richly pigmented, multidisciplinary approach, Báez combines saturated colors, intricate patterns and expressive figuration with abstract gestures, architectural plans, colonial-era maps and culturally resonant symbols. Her work draws deeply from Afro-Caribbean traditions and acts as a cultural and historical crossroads for the enduring legacies of colonialism across the Americas, the African Diaspora and the cultural nexus of the Caribbean. This major exhibition reaffirms Báez’s place as one of the most compelling and visionary artists of her generation.In addition to her dynamic paintings, the exhibition will feature one of her more immersive pieces,&nbsp;A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways)&nbsp;(2019), which will occupy an entire gallery at the MCA. This large-scale work consists of paintings, mesh, papier-mâché, cutout tarp and plants that, together, transport visitors into one of Báez’s created worlds. Chicago is also highlighted in the exhibition:&nbsp;The trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other’s breathing)&nbsp;(2019) features a ciguapa (a feminine, trickster creature from Dominican folklore) bending over an architectural plan of the Illinois Central Railroad, uniting both sides of the tracks, which run between New Orleans and Chicago, to restore the divisions left by colonial trade.Firelei Báez&nbsp;is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and curated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director and Director of Curatorial Programs, Vancouver Art Gallery (former Barbara Lee Chief Curator, ICA/Boston), with Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator, ICA/Boston. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presentation is organized by Carla Acevedo-Yates, former Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator and Director of Curatorial Initiatives, with Cecilia González Godino, former Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow, and Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate. ABOUT THE ARTISTFirelei Báez (b. 1980, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; lives in New York)&nbsp;was born to a Dominican mother and a father of Haitian descent. Her upbringing between Hispaniola’s two countries, which have a longstanding history of tension predicated on ethnic difference, informs her concerns with the politics of place and heritage. She currently lives and works in New York City.Báez received an M.F.A. from Hunter College, a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union’s School of Art, and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She is the subject of her first major US survey, which originated at the ICA/Boston, curated by Eva Respini, and is now traveling. Her work has been presented in many significant international exhibitions, including the inaugural installation of the ICA Watershed, Boston (2021), curated by Eva Respini, which traveled to The Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas; and The Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), curated by Cecilia Alemani. Recent solo presentations of Báez’s work include exhibitions at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Pérez Art Museum Miami. The artist has recently participated in a number of group exhibitions at major institutions, such as the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Cleveland Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Baltimore Museum of Art; and Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. She is the recipient of many awards, most recently the Cooper Union President’s Citation (2022), Artes Mundi Prize (2021), and Philip Guston Rome Prize (2021). Báez’s work is held in many significant private and public collections; the latter include the Baltimore Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Dallas Museum of Art; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; The Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo; Pérez Art Museum Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda,Angola; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Tate, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. SUPPORTMajor support for&nbsp;Firelei Báez&nbsp;is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.This project is supported in part by Karen and Brian Conway, David and Jocelyne DeNunzio, Mathieu O. Gaulin, The Kotzubei-Beckmann Family Philanthropic Fund, Lise and Jeffrey Wilks, and an anonymous donor.Lead support for&nbsp;Firelei Báez&nbsp;at MCA Chicago is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, and R. H. Defares.Major support is provided by Laura and Tony Davis and Linden Capital Partners, Newcity, Robin Loewenberg Tebbe and Mark Tebbe, and Charlotte R. Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of Wagner Foundation.Generous support is provided by Nickol and Darrel Hackett, Hauser &amp; Wirth, the Margot and W. George Greig Ascendant Artist Fund.This exhibition is supported by the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, a philanthropic commitment to further equity across gender lines and promote the work and ideas of women artists ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGOThe Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The MCA interweaves exhibitions, performances, collections, and educational programs while providing a place for audiences to contemplate and discuss contemporary art in pursuit of a creative and diverse future. The MCA believes in the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) as a platform to enact structural change. The museum is generously supported by its Board of Trustees; individual and corporate members; private and corporate foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and government agencies. The MCA is a proud member of Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=91a06bd7c9&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">The MCA is located at 220 E. Chicago Avenue</a>&nbsp;and is open 10 am to 5 pm Wednesday to Sunday and Tuesdays from 10 am to 9 pm. Tuesday evenings (5-9 pm) are free for Illinois residents. The museum is closed on Mondays.&nbsp;Admission is free for all youth 18 and under, members of the military and veterans, and MCA members. Free admission for anyone 18 and under is generously provided by Liz and Eric Lefkofsky, and Northern Trust. Find more information about MCA's exhibitions, programs, and special events at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=0649146eaa&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" target="_blank">mcachicago.org</a>&nbsp;or at 312.280.2660.

Chicago Presentation of Firelei Báez

The first U.S. monographic museum exhibition since 2017 of Chinese American artist Martin Wong (1946–1999), Martin Wong: Chinatown USA traces the evolution of the queer painter’s deep engagement with Chinatowns in San Francisco and New York. Featuring more than 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs, the exhibition reveals Wong’s singular vision of urban realism and his fascination with astrology, architecture, and language. The exhibition is curated by Yasufumi Nakamori, PhD, with Ashley Janke, Assistant Curator, Wrightwood 659, and is presented by Halsted A&amp;A Foundation.

Martin Wong: Chinatown USA

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://qvrzaq.clicks.mlsend.com/tj/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjM4NzU1NixcImxcIjoxNzMyNDE4MTEyMDcxOTM2NjMsXCJyXCI6MTczMjQxODIzMzYxMjM4NTIwfSIsInMiOiJiODA1ZjgyMzJkOTJmODAxIn0" target="_blank">Sarah Smelser: Sandia</a>Sandia&nbsp;is&nbsp;an ongoing series of monotypes begun in 2023. For Smelser, contemplation of the situational experience of being in&nbsp;a specific physical space is central, and to this end she seeks out impactful landscapes. Her daily ritual of walking becomes a method of attuning to the shifting qualities of light, smell, sound, and the subtle rhythms of a place; the unpacking of these sensory perceptions into visual form is the basis of her practice.Though the works in the "Sandia" series were born of a particular place, they do not attempt to describe it. Instead, the visual and physical experience of place—its memories, impressions, and contrasts to familiarity—feeds Smelser’s abstract sensibility. Fifteen works from the series are shown in this collection.The "Sandia" prints emerged from the artist’s lifelong love of the high desert environments of the American Southwest and, more specifically, from several weeks she spent at an artist residency in Albuquerque, NM, in 2022. Albuquerque sits on land that slopes from the Sandia Mountains down to the Rio Grande. The Sandias—Spanish for watermelon—were named for their warm pink-red color at sunset. The city presses up against the mountains, and harsh desert conditions permeate the urban environment. The intersection of the urban and natural landscapes became a particular focus for Smelser during her daily plantigrade perambulations.

Sarah Smelser: Sandia (online exhibition)

In partnership with Chicago Housing Authority, during the summer of 2025 Hyde Park Art Center carried out a mural production program. Artist and educator&nbsp;Dorian&nbsp;Sylvain led a select group of young adults to design and complete a mural on the exterior of Hyde Park Art Center’s building. The education of individuals of all ages and backgrounds is core to Sylvain’s practice, with a particular focus on students within the age group of 18 – 25 years old. Sylvain’s teaching and leadership with this group centered on developing artistic skills and professionalism, while working with Art Center community to carry out a design process towards a finished mural. Through hands-on experience, this summer cohort were provided with materials, resources, and instruction to complete a large-scale mural while being exposed to professional artists, public art in Chicago through, and the Art Center’s expansive community.

Nature is Arts Muse

The sun was formed 4.6 billion years ago. It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for its light to travel to Earth. The calendar as we know it, based on cycles of the solar year, was first implemented four and a half centuries ago in 1582. Days still track our planet’s rotation. Years follow our orbit around the sun. Months originally matched lunar cycles. The average human life span equals 26,784 nights or sunrises. In some places, where people have to watch the sky for other reasons, it’s 12,000 less. The oldest person on record lived 122 years. The oldest living now is 115. The clock is a device that constitutes time as it measures it. Time used to be local, based on the sun’s position. That changed on “The Day of Two Noons,” in 1883, when U.S. railroads adopted standardized time zones. Four people who woke up this morning can say they’ve been on the moon. No one has stood there since 1972. Up to 6500 stars are visible to the naked eye at any one location. In most cities around the world, one sees only a fraction of this. Palomar Observatory, on a California mountain, once had the largest optical telescope in the world. It lost the title in 1976, but it’s still used to observe celestial objects, collecting incoming light. Italo Calvino wrote a book about a person, a seeker of the cosmic in the everyday, who shares his name with that place. At 118 pages,&nbsp;Mr. Palomar&nbsp;takes maybe 3 to 4 hours to read. AI doesn’t experience time as a continuous flow, or have a concept for it like we do. Its perception of “now”, if one can say that, will change as its processing speed increases. We can predict where all the stars in the sky will be a hundred years from now. There isn’t a good count for the number of fireflies every summer, but it’s easily in the hundreds of millions, or more. Each one lives for only a few weeks after emerging from the ground. Once there were 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons flying overhead in America. Now there are none. Palomar&nbsp;is a group exhibition in two parts. Curated by Karsten Lund. Friends of Palomar Patron Circle: Maria Christina &amp; Guy-Karim Caland Puymartin. Renaissance Society programs are supported by the Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Image: Sarah and Joseph Belknap,&nbsp;4 Months of the Sun, 2014

Palomar (Part 1)

The Door County Contemporary Art Fair will be held at the Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek, Wisconsin from June 4 to June 6, 2026. For the second year the three-day program will introduce art to art enthusiasts in an event yet unseen in Wisconsin. It was born from the desire to address a lack of contemporary art in an otherwise culturally enriched and dynamic destination. And to do it with an enthusiasm that embraces the energy, vision, and welcoming spirit of the region. DCC will host 14 art galleries from Wisconsin and beyond while welcoming thousands of art lovers from around the United States. It will also feature a wealth of site-specific art works and projects, plenty of Wisconsin-centric food and drink, and curated events and art-related projects. Door County Contemporary will be more than an art fair, it will be a three-day celebration of art and ideas. All of it set against the backdrop of one of the America’s greatest geographical settings–a brilliant contrast of perspectives that will make it a truly memorable and unique occasion. DCC hopes to leave visitors feeling they’ve married the best of fine art with the idiosyncratic swagger of the region, meant to resonate long after its visitors exit State Highway 42/57. The events, the setting, the tastes and smells, and of course the world class art will create something far greater than the sum of its eclectic parts: woodsy tradition and bleeding-edge cultural objects; Spotted Cows and conceptual art; and all the best things talented humans can deliver to the world to make it worth inhabiting.<a style="color: rgb(255, 254, 252);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/application" target="_blank">Application</a> Door County Contemporary<a style="color: inherit;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:info@doorcountycontemporary.com" target="_blank">info@doorcountycontemporary.com</a>

Door County Contemporary 2026

Ann Toebbe’s ongoing series,&nbsp;Cooler by the Lake,&nbsp;is set in Hyde Park. For nearly two decades, Toebbe has lived in this Southside Chicago neighborhood with her husband, working and raising her two daughters and stepson. Toebbe’s domestic paintings explore the people, places, culture, and climate that are woven into her daily routine as a working artist and mother—home, garden, studio, grocery store, bakery, park, and local school. Her densely composed multi-point-of-view vignettes capture the sensory impressions and memory layers accumulated in hours and days spent in Hyde Park, meditating on the realization that this is the neighborhood her children know as home and where Toebbe and her husband will grow old.

Ann Toebbe: Cooler by the Lake

With origins dating to 1875, the art collection at the University of Notre Dame is one of the oldest and most esteemed in the United States. To celebrate and share this landmark event, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art will host a major exhibition highlighting many of the recent gifts it has received to commemorate the 150th&nbsp;anniversary. The gifts range from single works of art to entire collections.

Bridging Time and Place: The 150th Anniversary of the University of Notre Dame Art Museum

The storied city of Djenné, a center of Islamic learning, study, and scholarship since the twelfth century, is the hometown of Bamako-based photographer&nbsp;Hamdia Traoré&nbsp;(b. 1992, Mali).&nbsp;The thirty portraits in Traore’s series&nbsp;Des marabouts de Djenné (Marabouts of Jenne)&nbsp;reflect his intimate connections to the city’s people and deep history. Learned and devout, marabouts teach in Djenné’s over 50 Qur’anic schools, offer spiritual guidance, and treat ailments through their knowledge of the Qur’an.Made during a time of political and social upheaval in Mali, these portraits reflect enduring cultural resilience. Each image depicts a marabout seated with the tools of his practice—books, Qur’an boards, amulets, and prayer beads—framed by the architecture and atmosphere of Djenné. The consistent format underscores their collective identity, while individual poses and captions highlight personal roles and neighborhoods.Traoré’s work will be shown alongside mid-20th-century black-and-white portraits of marabouts by Malian photographers&nbsp;Mamadou Cissé, Abdourahmane Sakaly, and&nbsp;Tijani Sitou. Drawn from the Archive of Malian Photography, these earlier images share visual parallels and deepen the historical context.&nbsp;Together, these images illuminate evolving perspectives on spiritual authority, identity, and visual representation in Mali.This exhibition is developed in collaboration with the artist and professor Candace Keller, co-founder of the&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amp.matrix.msu.edu/" target="_blank">Archive of Malian Photography</a>.

Hamdia Traoré’s “Des marabouts de Djenné” and Muslim Portraiture in Mali

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

Cydney M. Lewis: Weeds Grow in All Directions

The Paradox of Inaction&nbsp;is a new site-specific installation composed of over 160 cast ceramic forms. The ceramic pieces, arranged in low-lying platforms throughout the 2300 sq ft gallery, appear abstract at first glance, but when seen collectively, create the illusion of a submerged suburban neighborhood. The installation recreates a catastrophic scene that has become increasingly common in coastal communities as a result of global warming. Placing the viewers at the center of the scene, the installation invites reflection and a deeper understanding of the threat of current and future natural disasters.&nbsp;Throughout her career, Ruttan has endeavored to create visual representations of massive traumatic events that defy the human capacity to comprehend fully. For Ruttan, the process of representing these events by spending countless hours rendering them visible is an attempt to make them feel more real for herself as well as others. Her hope is that this work serves as a call to action for others to shift habits and prevent further inaction.&nbsp;This exhibition is generously supported by the Graham Foundation. Ruttan is a project-based artist whose work focuses on topical investigations. Her work has been exhibited at Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Chicago Cultural Center, Crystal Bridges Art Museum (Bentonville, AR), The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL), Kent State University Art Museum (Kent, OH), The Frist Museum (Nashville, TN), Sweeney Art Gallery (Riverside, CA), Document Gallery (Chicago, IL), Galerie Wit (Netherlands), Rocket Gallery (London), The Drawing Center (New York City, NY). Awards include recognition from The Illinois Arts Council; Jerome Foundation, Art &amp; Technology Residency; Wexner Museum, Artists Residency; and Wild Animal Park.

Alison Ruttan: The Paradox of Inaction

The sun was formed 4.6 billion years ago. It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for its light to travel to Earth. The calendar as we know it, based on cycles of the solar year, was first implemented four and a half centuries ago in 1582. Days still track our planet’s rotation. Years follow our orbit around the sun. Months originally matched lunar cycles. The average human life span equals 26,784 nights or sunrises. In some places, where people have to watch the sky for other reasons, it’s 12,000 less. The oldest person on record lived 122 years. The oldest living now is 115. The clock is a device that constitutes time as it measures it. Time used to be local, based on the sun’s position. That changed on “The Day of Two Noons,” in 1883, when U.S. railroads adopted standardized time zones. Four people who woke up this morning can say they’ve been on the moon. No one has stood there since 1972. Up to 6500 stars are visible to the naked eye at any one location. In most cities around the world, one sees only a fraction of this. Palomar Observatory, on a California mountain, once had the largest optical telescope in the world. It lost the title in 1976, but it’s still used to observe celestial objects, collecting incoming light. Italo Calvino wrote a book about a person, a seeker of the cosmic in the everyday, who shares his name with that place. At 118 pages,&nbsp;Mr. Palomar&nbsp;takes maybe 3 to 4 hours to read. AI doesn’t experience time as a continuous flow, or have a concept for it like we do. Its perception of “now”, if one can say that, will change as its processing speed increases. We can predict where all the stars in the sky will be a hundred years from now. There isn’t a good count for the number of fireflies every summer, but it’s easily in the hundreds of millions, or more. Each one lives for only a few weeks after emerging from the ground. Once there were 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons flying overhead in America. Now there are none. Palomar&nbsp;is a group exhibition in two parts. Curated by Karsten Lund. Friends of Palomar Patron Circle: Maria Christina &amp; Guy-Karim Caland Puymartin. Renaissance Society programs are supported by the Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Image: Sarah and Joseph Belknap,&nbsp;12 Months of the Sun, 2024

Palomar (Part 2)

Lavar Munroe&nbsp;is a Bahamian interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the human condition through a blend of immersive travel, cultural research, and material experimentation. Working across mixed media painting, sculpture, and drawing, Munroe&nbsp;operates&nbsp;in the spirit of an anthropologist—integrating into communities across Africa, including Tanzania, Senegal, and Zimbabwe, to engage firsthand with local rituals, ceremonies, and belief systems. These encounters, combined with his upbringing in the Bahamas, fuel a practice rooted in storytelling, folklore, and mythology.&nbsp;Munroe’s richly layered works—often described as hybrids between painting and relief sculpture—combine&nbsp;everyday&nbsp;and symbolic materials such as glass, synthetic flowers, feathers, and&nbsp;newspaper&nbsp;with acrylic, oil pastel, and house paint. These elements, many drawn from his childhood and travels, are woven into fantastical, dreamlike compositions that examine themes of home, utopia, escape, and belonging. His work challenges viewers to navigate multiple narratives that span personal memory, cultural identity, and collective imagination.&nbsp;&nbsp;Munroe (b.1982, Nassau, Bahamas) earned his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design (2007) and MFA Studio Art at Washington University, St. Louis (2013).&nbsp;He also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2013) and was awarded a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2016), Benny Andrews Fellow from the MacDowell Colony (2016), and The Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity-University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC (2014). Recent solo exhibitions include&nbsp;Larkin Durey, London, UK (2024);&nbsp;moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2023);&nbsp;Jack Bell Gallery, London, England (2022, 2021, 2014); Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (2021); NOMAD, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, LA (2018); SCAD Museum of Art and Gutstein Gallery, Savannah, GA (2016); and The Central Bank, Nassau, Bahamas (2010).&nbsp;Munroe’s work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally at&nbsp;The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI;&nbsp;Kunstmuseum Basel, St. Alban-Graben, CH;&nbsp;Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, SA;&nbsp;The&nbsp;National Art Gallery of&nbsp;The Bahamas; Centre Pompidou Metz, FR; Ichihara Lakeside Museum; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; Perez Art Museum Miami, FL; Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK; and Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC, among others.&nbsp;Munroe will have a solo show with&nbsp;moniquemeloche&nbsp;in 2026 and will co-represent&nbsp;The Bahamas at the 2026 Venice Biennale.&nbsp;Munroe’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD;&nbsp;Fondation&nbsp;de France;&nbsp;Fondation&nbsp;Gandur&nbsp;pour&nbsp;l’Art, Genève, Switzerland; The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY; The Central Bank of the Bahamas, Nassau, BA; The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau, BA; and the MAXXI Museum, Rome, IT. He is the recipient of honors and awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts in honor of Robert De Niro, Sr., (2023), the Sondheim Artscape Prize Finalist (2021), Distinguished Alums Award from Sam Fox School of Art and Design from Washington University of St. Louis (2018), Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence from the University of North Carolina (2015), Sam Fox Dean’s Initiative Fund (2013), Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2013), Joan Mitchell Foundation Scholarship (2012), The Kraus Family Foundation Award (2011), and The National Endowment for the Arts Grant (2011). Munroe lives and works between Baltimore, MD, and&nbsp;The Bahamas.&nbsp;

Lavar Munroe

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

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

Artist Oren Pinhassi sculpts anthropomorphic forms at great scale that appeal to the senses and intellect at once. He brings to The Arts Club of Chicago a series of figural/architectural works that occupy the gallery in an encompassing configuration, aiming to trigger the physical engagements of desire and fragility. On a basic level, Pinhassi’s forms address viewers as beings. They stand erect, though full of bulbous protrusions and seductive orifices. Yet, they refuse to be fully explicit, instead, seeking to communicate in the manner of poetry. Pinhassi’s towering or sprawling creatures draw upon such ordinary materials as sand, stone, or vinyl. In a process he has named “erotic construction,” Pinhassi uses sensual appeal, rough texture, suggestive pose, and intimate detail to press against the confines of a restrictive society.&nbsp;He has further explained, “The cavities in my work—windows, holes—simultaneously reference the most intimate cavities of the body and, as recognizable architectural elements, become landscapes for this public exchange.” How do streetscapes or open windows suggest encounters or interpenetrations? What are the boundaries between one and another? Why do we fear contact? And where might mutual understanding&nbsp;be found?Photo:&nbsp;Truth Teller&nbsp;(detail), 2024. Steel, burlap, sand, polymer and rock. 93 x 30 x 24 in (236.2 x 76.2 x 60.9 cm). Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery.The exhibition is curated by Janine Mileaf, Executive Director and Chief Curator at The Arts Club of Chicago.

Oren Pinhassi

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence defined “unalienable rights” as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” And five years after the end of the Revolutionary War, the founding generation ratified a new Constitution to, among other things, “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” What it meant to dedicate a country to liberty was immediately contested and continues to be contested to this day. For whom were these “Blessings of Liberty” to be secured? Under what circumstances could individuals expect the inalienable right of liberty to be recognized? What justifies limitations on liberty, and what does a dedication to liberty demand of us? Though Americans grappled with these issues in all times and places, nothing crystallized the tensions around liberty quite like war. President Abraham Lincoln, in his address at the newly dedicated Gettysburg National Cemetery in the midst of the Civil War, centered his reflection on this very question: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” At the site of so much death and destruction, he wondered whether a nation, “so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” Conceived in Liberty: Cartoons, Caricatures, and Illustrations in the Wartime US, 1812-1918&nbsp;will draw on the Newberry’s collection to show how artists living through wartime “conceived” cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations that grappled with questions about liberty. These images appeared throughout broader print culture (newspapers, magazines, sheet music, broadsides, posters) as well as in more private contexts, such as diaries, letters, or sketchbooks. Whether patriotic or dissenting, available to the masses or only to a few, wartime imagery reveals in dramatic, visually compelling ways how the people of the US have used the occasion of war to question, revise, challenge, and champion this core value of the country since its founding 250 years ago. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/conceived-in-liberty" target="_blank">DETAILS</a>

Conceived in Liberty: Cartoons, Caricatures, and Illustrations in the Wartime US, 1812-1918

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is thrilled to announce&nbsp;Dancing the Revolution. This exhibition is the first of its kind to explore and expand the visual, political and spiritual histories of dancehall and reggaetón through contemporary art—two dynamic genres that have transcended their grassroots origins to shape global culture. From Kingston to San Juan through London, Toronto, New York City and Panama,&nbsp;Dancing the Revolutionpositions music and dance as a revolutionary practice for collective liberation rooted in the struggle against colonial oppression.Dancehall and reggaetón are not only musical genres but cultural practices and powerful expressions of resistance and joy—reminders of the Caribbean's centuries-old traditions of dance and music as means of liberation and protest rooted in Black Atlantic history and culture.&nbsp;Dancing the Revolution&nbsp;showcases pivotal moments and themes from these histories, starting with the sound system—a mobile disco that embodies both a community experience and a vital civic institution.&nbsp;Presenting work across varied mediums,&nbsp;Dancing the Revolution&nbsp;includes painting, sound sculptures, installations, photographs, and video, showcasing how artists have been and continue to be inspired by these histories and the visual forms that emerge from them. The exhibition features more than 35 artists, including Isaac Julien, Jean Michel Basquiat, Edra Soto, Alberta Whittle, Carolina Caycedo, supakid and Lee "Scratch" Perry. A special commissioned mixtape project invites visitors to learn about the evolution of these popular genres in Panama and hear iconic songs that have paved the way for the global phenomenon of reggaetón. Audiences also will be able to purchase the exhibition’s bilingual catalogue (Spanish/English), which features scholarship on topics such as sound system and sonic aesthetics in painting, dancing and protest during Puerto Rico's&nbsp;Verano del 19, or Summer of 2019, and Panama’s reggae en español, as well as extensive illustrations reproducing exhibition artworks.Dancing the Revolution&nbsp;considers music and dance as powerful tools for sexual and political liberation. The exhibition’s title is inspired by the shifting RPMs (revolutions per minute) that mark the tempo and history of Caribbean popular music, including historic events like Verano del 19 (which famously included protests attended by singers iLe, Residente, Ricky Martin, and Bad Bunny). At this critical moment of collective action, LGBTQ+ and feminist activists led&nbsp;perreo combativo, or “combative twerking,” on the steps of San Juan Cathedral prior to Governor Ricardo Roselló’s resignation, transforming reggaetón’s characteristic dance into a form of political protest. This reclamation of public space through dance—an act deeply rooted in dancehall history and culture—demonstrates how music and dance can serve as bold acts of collective resistance and emancipation.Dancing the Revolution&nbsp;is curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, former Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator and Director of Curatorial Initiatives, with Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate, Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator, Cecilia González Godino, former Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow, and nibia pastrana santiago, Curatorial Consultant.

Dancing the Revolution

Since 2020, Carter has developed an extensive body of work exploring the site, history, and significance of the Singer Pavilion–the last remaining building of the former Michael Reese Hospital complex in Bronzeville–a design collaboration led by architect Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus School. This exhibition presents for the first time together the ten artworks including sculptures, digital images, sound works, installations, and a series of zines developed in collaboration with artists and community members with connections to the hospital. Together, the works prompt reflection on the importance of this site as a case study of past and future efforts to develop this culturally rich yet under-resourced neighborhood while also examining evolving ideas about urban development, architectural preservation, and the legacy of Modernist aesthetic and social philosophy.

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