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Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Roscoe Village, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville, Rogers Park

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Michigan Avenue, Streeterville, The Gold Coast, The Loop, and South Loop

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Pilsen, Bridgeport, Chinatown, plus Hyde Park, Jackson Park/Dorchester, and Bronzeville

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Superior and Franklin streets, West Chicago Ave, and down to Merchandise Mart and the River

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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

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 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

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

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)

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

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.

Jeff Carter: The Singer Pavilion Project

The annual exhibition highlights paintings, drawings, photography, ceramics, prints, animation, and multimedia work by young artists participating in Hyde Park Art Center’s Teen programs. Each year, the Teen programs provide a structured independence that encourages young artists to develop their creative voices, learn new skills, and build relationships in the context of a community-based art center, where artists of all ages and backgrounds do the same. The exhibition is a testament to the evolution and dedication of these young artists. They have taken on the challenge of expressing perplexed thoughts, feelings, and emotions into individual works of art.

Teen Show

Ground Floor, an ongoing biennial exhibition since 2010, brings together work by Chicago’s most promising emerging talent. The exhibition offers a single destination to encounter the work of twenty artists who have recently graduated (in 2025 and 2026) from one of Chicago’s five outstanding MFA programs: Columbia College, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, The University of Illinois at Chicago, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp;Ground Floor&nbsp;presents art made in the past couple of years in hopes of investigating and articulating conceptual and stylistic trends coming out of Chicago art schools right now.&nbsp;

Ground Floor

Hyde Park Art Center is excited to partner with the Veteran Art Movement, Chicago Cultural Center, Elmhurst Art Museum, and Walls Turned Sideways for the 2026 Veteran Art Triennial and Summit. The Hyde Park Art Center chapter&nbsp;Shifting Horizons&nbsp;considers land, migration, and decolonization through ideas informed by thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Harsha Walia. The exhibition invites reflections on how borders shape experience, how people navigate systems of control and resistance, and the uncertain landscapes that emerge amid ongoing struggles. The 2026 Veteran Art Triennial and Summit,&nbsp;Resisting the Long Wars, organized by curators Aaron Hughes, Mohamed Mehdi, Meranda Roberts, and Amber Zora, highlights artists’ creative defiance of war and militarism.

Veteran Art Triennial - RESISTING THE LONG WARS: Shifting Horizons 

The triennial program, created by Hyde Park Art Center in the mid-1990s, facilitates a fun and accessible commissioning process that builds lasting relationships between artists and patrons, creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community.&nbsp;Not Just Another Pretty Face&nbsp;cultivates collectors, who are essential to the ecosystem that artists need to thrive, by embracing and encouraging the concept of patronage in contemporary art. Artists need not only collectors but also a community of people who know, support, and value what they do. To date, the Art Center has raised nearly&nbsp;$2,000,000&nbsp;through this program—half of which goes directly to artists, with the other half supporting Art Center programs. Through&nbsp;Not Just Another Pretty Face,&nbsp;375+&nbsp;original works&nbsp;of art have been commissioned by&nbsp;275&nbsp;new and established collectors&nbsp;interested in investing in Chicago’s artists. This exhibition will showcase the nearly&nbsp;100 new artworks&nbsp;made in this year’s iteration of this popular program.

Not Just Another Pretty Face

This exhibition takes a groundbreaking look at the little-known history of printing on fabric from the fifteenth century to the present. These stunning artworks, books, broadsides, and maps were initially prized as unique luxury editions of works normally printed on paper. Fabrics were substituted for paper at great cost, often using imported materials.&nbsp;Printing on Fabric&nbsp;also investigates the intentional choices of the printers and commissioners, some of whom were female, and shows how the origins of these lavish materials reflected the global world of the early modern textile economy. Though the sheen of foreign silks enhanced the beauty of these objects for specific recipients, the techniques used to make them soon served wider audiences and cheaper fabrics equally well. Indeed, while surviving early examples are kept in museum and library collections, they inspired more recent printed wearables such as memorial imagery on t-shirts. From the ethereally unfamiliar to the everyday, exhibition audiences will find these fabric printings dazzling, intriguing, and thought-provoking. The accompanying exhibition catalog will be available in Fall 2026. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/printing-on-fabric" target="_blank">DETAILS</a>

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