What We're Reading: 1/25/22
Bronzeville: An audio tour of one neighborhood's quiet transformation
Bronzeville, a swath of the South Side once known as the Black metropolis and rich in history, received a lot of welcome attention in 2021. Illinois’ two senators introduced legislation to designate the neighborhood a National Heritage Area. The plan to redevelop the long-empty Michael Reese Hospital site into the 48-acre mixed-use development moved forward. And writer Dawn Turner published an insightful memoir, "Three Girls From Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate and Sisterhood."
Meanwhile, Crain’s reporter Dennis Rodkin has been documenting a quiet transformation that's going on in Bronzeville.
Via Crain's
Evanston Artist’s New Exhibition Showcases 75 Years of Self-Portraits
For the first time, self-portraits of Evanston artist Leo Segedin are on display in a solo exhibition.
Segedin, 95, painted the self-portraits over the course of 75 years.
“The past is my present, in my painting anyway,” Segedin said.
Despite raising his family in Evanston for the last 50 plus years, Segedin’s work has always been rooted in his memories of growing up on the city’s West Side.
Via WTTW
The Whitney Biennial, one of the most closely watched—and fiercely debated—exhibitions in America, has revealed the lineup for its next edition, which opens in April. The 63-strong list of artists and collectives chosen by curators David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards encompasses three generations and suggests that the first pandemic-era iteration of the show will have a decidedly conceptual and interdisciplinary bent.
Via Artnet
Simone Leigh statue of African deity installed at former site of Confederate monument in New Orleans
Leigh’s sculpture was unveiled at the symbolically charged site in the city centre during the closing weekend of the fifth Prospect New Orleans triennial
Via The Art Newspaper