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

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 

Bringing together selections from the KIA’s collection spanning nearly 200 years, and contemporary fashion objects from the Barrett Barrera Projects collection, Statement Pieces: Fashioning the Self &amp; Society explores how self-presentation and expression have been presented, shaped, and reimagined. From Alexander McQueen to James Van Der Zee, groupings of representational and abstract artworks, displayed alongside runway fashions, invite viewers to consider the dynamic between one’s exterior appearance and inner life—between what is seen and what is self-defined.

Statement Pieces: Fashioning the Self & Society

<h2>NOVEMBER 7, 2026 - FEBRUARY 7, 2027</h2>Fashion and the visual arts, particularly portraiture, share a common vernacular. Both practices frame the body, and in doing so, shape how personhood is constructed, perceived, and valued within culture. These artistic practices do more than present appearances; they mediate agency, authorship, and visibility. As a result, dress and the visual arts become sites where identity, including the construction of the feminine, is staged, negotiated, and at times contested. Statement Pieces: Fashioning the Self &amp; Society&nbsp;brings together selections from the collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) spanning nearly 200 years and contemporary fashion objects from the Barrett Barrera Projects collection to explore how self-presentation and expression have been presented, shaped, and reimagined. From Alexander McQueen to James Van Der Zee, groupings of representational and abstract artworks, alongside fashion, invite viewers to consider the dynamic between one’s exterior appearance and inner life—between what is seen and what is self-defined. Organized in conjunction with Barrett Barrera Projects. <a href="https://www.kiarts.org/exhibition/statement-pieces-fashioning-the-self-society/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a>

<h3>November 21, 2026 – February 14, 2027</h3>Drawn from the renowned collection of Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, this exhibition presents contemporary and modern Japanese tea bowls and water jars inspired by the traditions of the tea ceremony. Through variations in form, glaze, and texture, the works highlight both the enduring influence of chanoyu and the innovation of postwar Japanese ceramics.

Chanoyu: Modern Tea Ceramics from the Horvitz Collection

<a href="https://nmprac.org/exhibitions/our-island-of-treasures-puerto-rican-voices-from-indiana/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a> Curator:Daniel Del Real “These are the treasures we carry with us — across oceans, across generations, and into every place we call home.” Our Island of Treasures: Puerto Rican Voices from Indiana&nbsp;brings together the work of the&nbsp;¡WEPArt! Colectivo, a collective of ten Puerto Rican artists based in Indiana, united by a shared passion for celebrating, preserving, and exploring their cultural identity.&nbsp; This exhibition was born from a desire to challenge disparaging narratives about Puerto Rico and its people by celebrating the treasures of&nbsp;La Isla del Encanto. Rather than defining the island through moments of crisis or misconception,&nbsp;Our Island of Treasures&nbsp;reframes Puerto Rico as a place of extraordinary cultural, historical, ecological, and artistic abundance. Through visual storytelling, the artists share the profound connections they hold with the island’s people, history, landscapes, and spirit, bringing those experiences to audiences across Indiana, the Midwest, and beyond.&nbsp; Each ¡WEPArt Colectivo! member offers a distinct artistic perspective that contributes to a vibrant and meaningful collective voice. Working across a rich tapestry of mediums, the artists explore themes of memory, ancestry, migration, folklore, resilience, ecology, and belonging. Their works celebrate Puerto Rico’s natural beauty, cultural heritage, and evolving identity – particularly as experienced from afar. Together, the exhibition forms a rich tapestry of artistic expression that reflects both individual journeys and a shared cultural inheritance. While each artist tells its own story, collectively they affirm that Puerto Rican identity is not confined by geography but continues to evolve wherever Puerto Ricans preserve their culture, build community, and create. This exhibition is presented by&nbsp;The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture&nbsp;in partnership with ¡WEPArt! Colectivo.&nbsp;

Our Island of Treasures: Puerto Rican Voices from Indiana

The Smart Museum of Art is honored to present&nbsp;<a href="https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/exhibitions/teamlab-everything-exists-in-infinite-continuity/?mc_cid=7d709976d5&amp;mc_eid=a6ad3ea4a5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity</a>. The exhibition marks the international art collective’s first major institutional presentation in the midwestern region. &nbsp;<a href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=660a8f7cbb&amp;e=a6ad3ea4a5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1780681487/ordsoruucmvyn3jhg0gx.jpg" height="auto" width="612"></a> The art collective teamLab is renowned for creating immersive digital art installations exploring themes of perception and consciousness. Based in Tokyo, teamLab’s artworks draw upon wide ranging experimentation with art created through digital technology. Central to teamLab’s work is their aim to explore the relationship between the self and the world and using technology in new ways to explore perception, with an emphasis on individualized perception in a collective experience. Founded in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko, teamLab has grown into an international collective comprised of hundreds of artists, scientists, computer programmers, mathematicians, and architects, among others. teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity&nbsp;is the first exhibition of teamLab in the Midwest and traces the collective’s artistic trajectory over the last twenty-five years. It presents some of teamLab’s most iconic artworks as well as new work made specifically for this exhibition. In doing so, it explores how teamLab has experimented with and expanded their use of digital technologies to create environments that blur the boundary between the viewer and the artwork. <a href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=306ff82845&amp;e=a6ad3ea4a5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read the Exhibition Listing</a>

teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity

Drawn from the distinguished collection of Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, Chanoyu (pronounced chan-o-you) presents a focused selection of contemporary and modern Japanese tea bowls and water jars that honor and reinvent the traditions of the tea ceremony. Through subtle variations in form, glaze, and texture, these works reveal the enduring influence of chanoyu while embracing the individuality of postwar ceramics studio practices.

<a href="https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/to_be_remembered.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DETAILS</a>Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Rooms, 2nd Floor NorthCurated by: Mya LewisBetween the folds of this world, lingering pieces of one’s own gossamer, narrative threads lay waiting to be unearthed and held.To Be Remembered: Woven Matters of the Heart&nbsp;embraces the reflective ways in which five contemporary textile artists illuminate their rich interior worlds through their unique fiber practices. The artists: ebere agwuncha, Nnaemeka Ekwelum, Hale Ekinci, Josué Esaú, and Thương Hoài Trần each visually intertwine time, memory, and emotion to conjure deeply felt histories across spatial geographies, venerating the cultural traces that connect us to the motherlands.Embedded in their designs and motifs, the artworks’ layered meanings preserve cultural continuity through extensive research that awakens their ancestors’ legacies and gifts. The works create new pathways to becoming closer to one another, communicating how we become and become undone within the ever-changing cycles of life. Skillfully made by hand, the artists guide us in how we learn to weave our own personal mythologies.The magic in life is apparent, and we invite you to find it within. Friday, August 21, 20264-7 p.m.&nbsp;Opening ReceptionChicago Rooms, 2nd Floor North Saturday, September 19, 20262 p.m.&nbsp;Artist TalkChicago Rooms, 2nd Floor North Saturday, October 3, 202612:30-2 p.m.&nbsp;meditation on: sculptural portals, a visual lecture by ebere agwunchaClaudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd Floor NorthThrough exploring familial archives, local collections, and diasporic memories, this presentation will expand the site-specific&nbsp;sculptural portals&nbsp;created by the artist, ebere agwuncha, for the exhibition&nbsp;To Be Remembered: Woven Matters of the Heart.&nbsp;sculptural portals&nbsp;incorporate oral histories from agwuncha’s parents, who immigrated from Nigeria to Chicago in the 1980s, alongside traditional Igbo craft to expand the significance of art-making through an active archiving practice. This event offers a deeper dive into the research and personal history behind agwuncha’s installation, giving the audience an intimate look into an artist’s process. Saturday, October 17, 2026Noon - 2 p.m.&nbsp;Woven Vessel Workshop with ebere agwunchaChicago Rooms, 2nd Floor NorthThe&nbsp;Woven Vessel Workshop&nbsp;invites creatives of all skill levels to learn basket weaving techniques to craft a unique functional object. This workshop is facilitated by ebere agwuncha, a transdisciplinary artist from Chicago. Visitors will have the opportunity to make a woven basket and utilize beads as adornment for their work. Supplies are provided and are limited for the event. Saturday, December 5, 2026Noon - 2 p.m.&nbsp;Weaving Workshop with Thương Hoài TrầnChicago Rooms, 2nd Floor NorthJoin us for an accessible, hands-on weaving workshop that utilizes affordable materials such as cardboard and secondhand yarn. This workshop explores how to approach weaving without a specialized loom, making the process more accessible to beginners and those without access to traditional weaving equipment. Friday, December 11, 2026Noon - 2 p.m.&nbsp;Weaving Workshop with Thương Hoài TrầnLearning Lab, 1st Floor SouthJoin us for an accessible, hands-on weaving workshop that utilizes affordable materials such as cardboard and secondhand yarn. This workshop explores how to approach weaving without a specialized loom, making the process more accessible to beginners and those without access to traditional weaving equipment.&nbsp; Image: Kỷ Niệm Ngày Cưới: Burgundy and Gold, Thương Hoài Trần, 34" x 28", 2021. Photo credit: Thương Hoài Trần;

To Be Remembered: Woven Matters of the Heart

Colombian artist Beatriz González (1932–2026) is widely known as&nbsp;la maestra&nbsp;in her home country. Beyond the literal translation of “teacher,” the term is used as a mark of respect for someone who has achieved a remarkable impact in a particular field. In González’s case, it acknowledges her roles as an artist, historian, curator, and mentor, whose importance transcends national boundaries and continues to resonate on a global scale. Beatriz González: In Series and Full Color&nbsp;is the first retrospective dedicated to the drawings and prints of González, whose practice spanned more than six decades until her passing earlier this year. The exhibition explores her use of appropriation and repetition as both formal and conceptual strategies to reflect critically on the circulation of images, notions of taste, and her country’s recent history.&nbsp; The exhibition begins in 1965 with a pivotal moment that reoriented the artist’s approach to mass media imagery. González encountered a photograph in a newspaper of a couple who had died by suicide and was drawn to the image’s printing distortions, caused by the fact that it had itself been reproduced from another newspaper. Fascinated by these effects, González painted her own interpretation of the portrait. With this work,&nbsp;The Suicides of Sisga, González began transgressing the languages and subject matter deemed appropriate within the fine arts context in Colombia. From that moment on, her “deliberately clumsy” compositions both revealed a command of drawing and printmaking techniques and signaled a rebellion against convention. González went on to create a vast art-historical archive, reinterpreting canonical works of art, images from newspaper crime pages, commercial prints, and figures from popular culture. By the mid-1980s, the tone of her work shifted toward questioning presidents and military leaders, while also registering the often anonymous victims of political violence and climate disasters, as well as some of Colombia’s most tragic events. Her work challenges the fleeting cycle of images, opening a space for memory and collective grief. In Series and Full Color&nbsp;brings together more than 80 works from across González’s career, including drawings, prints, sketches, sketchbooks, objects, and a selection of archival materials. The survey also marks the first time some of these works will be presented to the public.The exhibition’s title is inspired by the Spanish expression “¡ahora en serie y a todo color!” (“now in series and full color!”)—originally used to promote the transition of a comic strip into an animated series with the advent of color television. The idiom evokes both the vibrancy of González’s palette and the continued urgency of her themes. Beatriz González: In Series and Full Color&nbsp;is curated by is curated by Mark Pascale, Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator, Prints and Drawings, and Felipe Villada Ruiz, senior research associate, Prints and Drawings. Image: <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/273692/illustrated-news-la-actualidad-ilustrada" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(181, 9, 56);" target="_blank">Illustrated News (La actualidad ilustrada), 1973</a>Beatriz González

Beatriz González: In Series and Full Color

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

A representational painter inspired by the WPA and Regionalist artists of the 1930s, Dan Brinkmeier’s personal artwork often represents the spiritual connections that rural Midwestern people find within their landscape, and the small ceremonies and rituals performed by Illinois farmers in their everyday lives.The Secret World of Dan Brinkmeier&nbsp;is organized by Rockford Art Museum Chief Curator, Carrie Johnson. The exhibition is sponsored by Women’s Art Board and partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

The Secret World of Dan Brinkmeier

Sylvia Neil and Daniel Fischel GalleriesSlow Dance&nbsp;features a group of artists who use performance to recover forms of slowness that resist contemporary demands to constantly perform. The exhibition approaches performance in two registers: as an artistic medium rooted in the live presence of bodies and as an economic imperative characterized by the pervasive demand for productivity, speed and efficiency. At any given moment, we might feel this pressure differently—it may inspire and motivate us, spur optimism or provoke anxiety and depression, induce fatigue or provide fuel to keep going in spite of it all. Through gestures of suspension, inaction and stillness, the artists in the exhibition investigate the politics of the body’s labor and maintenance.Featuring works by Brendan Fernandes, Gordon Hall, Geumhyung Jeong, Carolyn Lazard, Melanie McLain and Cally Spooner, this multidisciplinary exhibition includes painting, sculpture, video and live performance. Focused on how bodies wear away and how they endure, these artists contend with the near constant obligation to perform in labor markets, the protracted economies of waiting and fatigue’s latent potential as a form of resistance. While exploring conditions of failure, breakdown or exhaustion, artists in the show model new modes of reciprocity, intimacy and connection that challenge the weathering effects of our contemporary imperative to perform.The exhibition will include in-gallery performance activations throughout the run of the show.Slow Dance&nbsp;is organized by Jadine Collingwood, Pamela Alper Associate Curator.

Slow Dance

Life is an Art: The Collection of Jan Petry&nbsp;highlights 30 artworks donated to IAM by the late, long-time board member Jan Petry. Curated by IAM Chief Curator&nbsp;Alison Amick, the exhibition showcases paintings, drawings, and sculptures by major figures in American self-taught art, including Emery Blagdon, James Castle, Ulysses Davis, Charles Dellschau, William Hawkins, and Martín Ramírez, as well as Günther Schützenhöfer, a resident artist at Gugging, a progressive art studio in Austria. Those artworks are complemented by objects that reflect Petry’s passion for folk art, design, furniture, and maritime themes, offering a glimpse into the vision of a dedicated collector.

Life is an Art: The Collection of Jan Petry

<a href="https://imss.org/the-artistry-of-plastic-surgery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Register Here</a> The devastation of the two world wars played a pivotal role in shaping the field of modern plastic surgery. In the early twentieth century, surgeons became artisans—suturing torn flesh like tailors mending fabric, reinforcing facial structures like carpenters restoring damaged frames. These groundbreaking reconstructive techniques laid the foundation for a discipline that would evolve beyond necessity into the realm of aesthetics.Simultaneously, artists—painters, sculptors, and draftsmen documenting the wars—engaged in parallel work. They studied the human form, deconstructing and reimagining faces and bodies through drawings, sculpture, and canvas. Anatomical study, once central to classical realism, became a bridge between art and medicine, guiding surgeons in their quest to restore symmetry, balance, and expression. The artist’s eye informed the surgeon’s hand, just as surgical reconstructions inspired new artistic interpretations of the human body.By the latter half of the twentieth century, plastic surgery had moved beyond reconstruction to self-reinvention. Like artists shaping raw material into beauty, surgeons refined and reshaped faces and bodies to align with personal desires and cultural ideals. The line between restoration and enhancement blurred, and the human body itself became a canvas for transformation.With the dawn of the new millennium came once-unimaginable feats—most notably, full-face transplantation. Surgeons, like sculptors working in living clay, not only rebuilt faces but gave patients entirely new ones. These innovations merged medicine, aesthetics, and identity in unprecedented ways.Today, the relationship between plastic surgery and art continues to evolve. Surgeons and artists share a common pursuit: to shape, refine, and redefine the human form. Whether working with marble or muscle, canvas or cartilage, both seek to capture the essence of beauty, resilience, and identity in constant flux.The International Museum of Surgical Science is proud to present these coinciding exhibitions as&nbsp;"A Year of Plastic Surgery"—a yearlong exploration of this remarkable field. Through monthly programs, we celebrate the masters of both flesh and form, bridging the worlds of surgical innovation and figurative art. Header Image: A soldier of Company K, 110th Regt. Infantry (formerly 3rd and 10th Inf., Pennsylvania National Guard), just wounded, receiving first-aid treatment from a comrade. Varennes-en-Argonne, France, on September 26, 1918. U.S. Army / U.S. National Archives <h1 class="ql-align-center"> </h1>

The Artistry of Plastic Surgery

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 href="https://www.newberry.org/calendar/printing-on-fabric" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a>

Printing on Fabric

<a href="https://www.expochicago.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EXPO CHICAGO</a> Contemporary Art Fair showcases leading contemporary and modern art galleries each April at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, alongside a diverse and inventive program of talks, on-site installations, and public art initiatives. Inaugurated in 2012, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s robust history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community. In 2023, EXPO CHICAGO was acquired by Frieze, the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art. The 14th edition of EXPO CHICAGO takes place on April 8–11, 2027 at Navy Pier's Festival Hall.&nbsp;

EXPO CHICAGO

The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to our upcoming exhibition, Contemporary Reflections on Tiffany Glass: Light, Color &amp; Form. The exhibition will be on display from January 10 - April 15, 2027, and will be free and open to the public. The Evanston Art Center and Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation (AELF) are celebrating a collaboration between our institutions with a special loan exhibition creating a dialogue between historic Tiffany stained glass windows and contemporary artists. Contemporary Reflections on Tiffany Glass: Light, Color &amp; Form will be on view at the EAC from January 10 to April 15, 2027.

Contemporary Reflections on Tiffany Glass: Light, Color & Form

The Driehaus Museum announces dates for Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History, a touring exhibition that examines the full scope of Stebbins’s history‑making career as one of the most significant American sculptors of the nineteenth century. From 1857 to 1870, Stebbins created innovative marble and bronze sculptures while living in Rome and studying within the circles of historic sculptors. Her work models inventive and incisive interpretations of literary and biblical subjects, as well as unprecedented allegories of American industry. With the Bethesda Fountain in 1863, Stebbins became the first woman to earn a commission for a public sculpture from the City of New York. Organized by the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, earlier this year, Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History is curated by Karli Wurzelbacher, Chief Curator of the Heckscher Museum, and is the first museum exhibition devoted to the late artist’s work. Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History takes place at the Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie Street, from October 8, 2026 to April 18, 2027.&nbsp;&nbsp;The exhibition reunites Stebbins’s oeuvre of neoclassical works, including 13 marble sculptures from across the US and Europe, in addition to paintings and a wealth of archival materials contextualizing her practice, her network, and her popularity on both sides of the pond. Stebbins was married to renowned Shakespearean actress Charlotte Cushman and one section of the exhibition prominently displays Stebbins’s bust of Cushman along with photographs, rare works on paper, and first editions of Stebbins’s posthumous biography of her partner. As a professional sculptor in a female marriage in the nineteenth century, Stebbins reimagined what a woman’s life could be in the mid‑nineteenth century, embedding layers of meaning into her work that upend traditional understandings of gender, sexuality, and agency.“In her lifetime, Stebbins was widely celebrated, yet even by the time of her death she was beginning to slip from view, her contributions gradually left out of the history books. This exhibition seeks to correct that quiet erasure and restore her rightful place as a significant artist of her era. We are deeply grateful to Art Bridges for their partnership in bringing renewed attention to her work and ensuring her story is once again seen and valued,” says Driehaus Museum Executive DirectorLisa M. Key. “Stebbins’s life and art reflect enduring questions about recognition, memory, and identity. By revisiting her legacy, we hope to illuminate how easily even celebrated artists can be forgotten, and how vital it is to bring their voices back into focus to inspire future generations.”Generous support for Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History is provided by Art Bridges Foundation.Major Support is provided by the Driehaus Trust Company, LLC. and Clare Blessen Ayer and Laura Mandel.&nbsp;&nbsp;ABOUT THE DRIEHAUS MUSEUMThe Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored 1883 Nickerson Mansion, and the 1926 Murphy Auditorium. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">driehausmuseum.org</a> and connect with the Museum on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Driehaus-Museum/362867207176025" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, TikTok, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History

Dr. Charles Smith served as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, an experience that left lasting wounds and shaped his artistic vision. In the 1980s, he began transforming his Aurora, Ill., home into the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive—a monumental environment of nearly 600 sculptures and 150 monuments honoring African-American history and civil rights. Using found materials, Smith created life-sized figures and symbolic structures referencing slavery, the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, African American cultural and political figures, and everyday life. Through the concept of&nbsp;anti-monumentalism, Smith critiques traditional monuments and holds space for histories often excluded from civic memory.Curated by IAM Assistant Curator Christina Stavros,&nbsp;Monumental: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith&nbsp;features pieces from the Museum’s collection alongside select loans, including several recently conserved works now on view for the first time in years.

Monumental: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers&nbsp;is a major survey that covers nearly thirty years of Rashid Johnson’s (b, 1977, Chicago, IL; lives in New York) practice. Presented in the Griffin Galleries, the exhibition examines Johnson’s work from his perspective as a student of art history; a consumer and translator of Black popular, literary, and intellectual culture; and a cultural participant in the age of globalization and its aftereffects. With works including photographs, videos, large-scale installations, immersive paintings and multimedia assemblages,&nbsp;A Poem for Deep Thinkers&nbsp;asks fundamental questions about the fragile human psyche in the face of ineffable historic forces. Johnson often says that “the subject of my work is freedom,” and throughout the exhibition visitors will encounter pieces inspired by radical artistic and political movements from the 1960s to the 1990s that modeled how individuals and communities can resist established orders to carve new paths through history.&nbsp; A Poem for Deep Thinkers&nbsp;features over seventy-five artworks that span the full breadth of Johnson’s career, including works from his seminal&nbsp;The New Negro Escapist Social&nbsp;and&nbsp;Athletic Club&nbsp;series, the&nbsp;Cosmic Slops&nbsp;and other black-soap shelf paintings, spray-painted text works and the&nbsp;Anxious Menand&nbsp;Broken Men&nbsp;series. Additionally, Johnson’s film and video projects will be placed intermittently throughout the galleries. Johnson’s latest film,&nbsp;Sanguine (2024)&nbsp;explores familial dynamics through the lens of the artist’s relationships with his father, brother, and son, and features a poem by the poet and activist Amiri Baraka. The subtitle of the exhibition also refers to Baraka and his poem of the same name from 1977. A Poem for Deep Thinkers&nbsp;is Johnson’s third solo exhibition at the MCA, following his first institutional exhibition in 2002 as part of the museum's 12 x 12 series and his mid-career survey,&nbsp;A Message to Our Folks, as part of the Ascendant Artist series in 2012. Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue that feature essays from exhibition curators Naomi Beckwith and Andrea Karnes, along with contributions by Nana Adusei-Poku, Hendrik Folkerts, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Kevin Quashie, and Odili Donald Odita. Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers&nbsp;was organized by Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Andrea Karnes, Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The MCA presentation is curated by Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator.

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

In 2027, The Block will present&nbsp;Pasados Presentes: Cultural Memory in the Americas, an original, bilingual exhibition that places colonial paintings from the Carl &amp; Marilynn Thoma Foundation’s Art of the Spanish Americas collection in dialogue with contemporary sculpture, textiles, photography, painting, and mixed-media installations by artists from across the Americas and the Philippines.Together, these works reveal how artists have used and adapted materials and artistic forms to transmit cultural memory, reinterpret inherited histories, and shape understandings of identity and place. By approaching materials and media as inseparable from a work's meaning,&nbsp;Pasados Presentes&nbsp;asks how art participates in shaping the history of the Americas and whose stories are preserved, obscured, or reimagined within those narratives.Pasados Presentes: Cultural Memory in the Americas&nbsp;is curated by Jesús Escobar, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in the Humanities, and Kyle Stephan, Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. Lead support for the exhibition is provided by the Carl &amp; Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Additional generous support is provided by the Illinois Arts Council and The Alumnae of Northwestern University.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Pasados Presentes: Cultural Memory in the Americas

Each spring The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is pleased to present the work of the Masters of Fine Arts candidates in the&nbsp;<a href="https://art.northwestern.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Department of Art Theory &amp; Practice</a>.&nbsp;The exhibition marks an early milestone in these artists' careers, and also offers a glimpse into the future of contemporary art.This exhibition and the associated events are co-organized by the Department of Art Theory and Practice and the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. The Block acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council, the Norton S. Walbridge Fund, the Myers Foundations, the Jerrold Loebl Fund for the Arts, and the Alsdorf Endowment.

2027 Art Theory and Practice MFA Thesis Exhibition

&nbsp;(Windows on Fifth Gallery)Using cut paper, Wisconsin-based Velliquette crafts a site-specific installation that explores the handmade, the ornamental, and the imagination.

Michael Velliquette: Intuitive Patterns

Stairwell GalleriesOccupying the three-story stairwell galleries in the MCA,&nbsp;From the Center: Looking at Lucy Lippard&nbsp;examines the wider impact of the research, writings, activism and exhibitions of renowned art historian, critic and curator Lucy Lippard (b. 1937, New York; lives in Galisteo, NM), who pushed the field of art history toward further inclusivity, through the lens of the MCA’s permanent collection. Over the past six decades, Lippard’s multidisciplinary career has been foundational to the histories of Conceptual, Feminist, Minimalist and Land Art practices of the 1960s and 1970s; the representation of artists of color in the Western canon; the intersection of art and activism; and placemaking for and by artists. Lippard’s work is widely appreciated due to its reach beyond the confines of art history to grapple with real world social issues through the lens of visual art and art criticism.&nbsp;From the Center: Looking at Lucy Lippard&nbsp;is split into three sections: “Form &amp; Feminism,” “The Art Worker as Activist” and “Site, Land, Place,” and will include works from the MCA Collection alongside archival materials, interviews, recordings and texts documenting Lippard’s career and work. “Form &amp; Feminism” will highlight Lippard’s efforts to incorporate women artists and issues in the art historical canon—including the publishing of feminist journal&nbsp;Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics, which ran from 1977 to 1993; her activism on behalf of women artists; and her own writing and curated exhibitions, including&nbsp;Twenty-Six Contemporary Women Artists&nbsp;(1971) and&nbsp;From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art&nbsp;(1976). The section “The Art Worker as Activist” will consider how artists are mobilized as activists alongside and as part of their artistic practices, as inspired by Lippard’s work within various activist groups such as the Art Workers Coalition and Ad Hoc Women’s Artist Committee. Lastly, “Site, Land, Place” relates to the politics of space—real, imagined or contested; the land and environment; and the power of placemaking. Lippard wrote several books concerned with these ideas, such as&nbsp;The Lure of the Local&nbsp;(1997);&nbsp;On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art, and Place&nbsp;(1999);&nbsp;Undermining: A Wild Ride through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West&nbsp;(2014); and two of her storied “Numbers” exhibitions,&nbsp;557,087&nbsp;(1969) and&nbsp;955,000&nbsp;(1970), which included several notable Land artists. Cumulatively, these presentations will provide a concise overview of select overriding themes that have driven Lippard’s practice throughout the arc of her prolific and singular career.Highlighted in the exhibition are over forty artists who have been featured in her scholarly or curatorial work, or are aligned with or inspired by her practice. Participating artists include Lynda Benglis, Andrea Bowers, Judy Chicago, Robert Colescott, Group Material, Fred Lonidier, Howardena Pindell, Robert Smithson, Michelle Stuart and Amanda Williams, among others. The exhibition will be supplemented by public programs, including a symposium, charting Lippard’s influence over several generations of artists, art historians and curators.&nbsp;From the Center: Looking at Lucy Lippard&nbsp;is organized by Jamillah James, Manilow Senior Curator, with Korina Hernandez, Curatorial Assistant.

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