Art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object.&nbsp;

Conceptual / Performance

<h3>Developed during the Italian Renaissance, primarily for aesthetics or beauty, the highest art was that which allowed the full expression and display of the artist's imagination.</h3>

Fine Prints & Painting – Pre 18th Century

<h3>Graphic Art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional. It includes calligraphy, photography, painting, typography, computer graphics, and bindery.&nbsp;</h3>

Graphic Art

Works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.

Artists' Books

The exploration of video art and music or sound set, including visual music, abstract film, audiovisual performances and installations.

Video / Sound

The objects produced by shaping pieces of clay that are then hardened by baking, or the skill of making such objects.

Ceramics

An artistic form in which hard or plastic materials are carved, modeled, casted, and constructed into a three-dimensional art object.&nbsp;

Sculpture

The process of creating artworks by printing, typically on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting.

Printmaking

<h3>Something made in an earlier period that is collected and considered to have value because it is beautiful, rare, old, or of high quality.</h3>

Antiques and Artifacts

Imagery where the subject matter centers around a view or depiction of Chicago.&nbsp;

Chicago Scenes & Regionalism

Old Masters refer to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800.

Old Masters

Socio-Political art is used to help the public understand a particular social or political issue.

Socio-Political

<h3>The attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, or implausible, exotic, and supernatural elements.</h3>

Realism

<h3>Artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real objects and is representational.</h3>

Figurative

<h3>Individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. Glass art ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces, to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glass jewelry and tableware.</h3>

Glass

<h3>Artwork that often deals with Rococo, the Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism.</h3>

Fine Prints & Painting – 18th & 19th C.

From the Tate Museum's website: Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life. Building on late nineteenth-century precedents, artists around the world used new imagery, materials and techniques to create artworks that they felt better reflected the realities and hopes of modern societies.

Modernism

<h3>Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that continue to challenge boundaries.</h3>

Fine Prints & Painting – Contemporary

<h3>Art that is concerned with the design and decoration of objects that are chiefly prized for their utility, rather than for their purely aesthetic qualities including, ceramics, glassware, metalware, furniture, textiles, clothing, and more.</h3>

Furniture & Decorative Arts

<h3>Emerging art is work by artists who are still building their artistic careers and have not yet reached a more established and widely recognized status.&nbsp;</h3>

Emerging

<h3>Fiber art refers to fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labour on the part of the artist as part of the works' significance, and prioritizes aesthetic value over utility.</h3>

Fiber Arts / Textiles

The quality of dealing with ideas rather than events. Freedom from representational qualities in art.

Abstraction

<h3>Art by African-American artists.</h3>

African-American

<h3>The art and science of designing and making buildings, or the style of a building.</h3>

Architecture

<h3>Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, an emphasis on light and its changing qualities, and inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience.</h3>

Impressionism

From the Tate Museum's website: Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.

Abstract Expressionism

Numismatics

Relating to Africa or people of African descent.

African

Eastern European art is a product of recent history. It can be traced to the division of Europe into the Western and Soviet spheres of influence of the allied victory over Germany in World War two.

Eastern European

LGBTQIA+

Feminist

Considered one of the most influential periods of art, featuring movements including Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism.

Early 20th Century

Skill and experience, especially in relation to making objects by hand.

Craft

<h3>The skill of making plans, drawings, or arrangements to show how a building or product is made.</h3>

Design

Asian art is diverse and rich, spanning thousands of years and dozens of countries. It is known for its ritual bronzes, beautiful ceramics, calligraphy, jades, textiles, painted landscapes, garden design, pagodas and stupas, and woodblock prints.

Asian

Italian

<h3>An artistic genre of three-dimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space.</h3>

Installations

An art form that combines visual art with dramatic performance.

Performance

Some of the most prominent, highly influential artists, who challenged preconceptions and pushed the limits of visual art, shaping the art world of our time.

Modern Contemporary Masters

Created in accordance with the vision of the artist as a photographer, using photography as a medium to bring something to life that only lives in the artist's mind.

Photography

The design movement in interior, product, graphic design, architecture, and urban development from roughly the 1930's to 1965.

Mid-Century

A movement in art and literature that flourished in the early 20th-century. Surrealism aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control.&nbsp;

Surrealism

An innovative discipline which seeks to unify a large range of art forms. This is creatively achieved by combining an array of artistic insights and crafts such as film, literature, performance, music and sound, drama, visual arts, or design.

Multi-Media

<h3>The depiction of landscapes in art—natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.</h3>

Landscape

Plein air is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look.

Plein-air

Printed 2-D artwork which is designed to be affixed to a vertical surface, may consist exclusively of images, or images and text.

Poster / Lithography

<h3>A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.</h3>

Portraits / Portraiture

<h3>These works are often stunningly beautiful, and encourage the viewer to engage with the rich history of research and experimentation that led to the piece’s conception.</h3>

Scientific

<h3>The Art of the American West is defined by geographical subject, consists of historic and contemporary works of art which focus on varying expressions of individuals, landscapes, ideals, and myths of the American West.</h3>

Western (The American West)

<h3>Borrowed from Wikipedia: In visual arts, music, and other mediums, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. It derives from the reductive aspects of modernism and is often interpreted as a reaction against abstract expressionism and a bridge to postminimal art practices.</h3>

Minimalism

<h3>Occupying the space between fine art and the everyday, functional art refers to aesthetic objects that serve utilitarian purposes. The genre is remarkably inclusive, it encompasses everything from furniture and lighting to dishes and even books.</h3>

Functional Art - Jewelry / Fashion

A range of artistic practices encompassing both historical approaches to nature in art and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of works.

Wildlife / Nature

Watches & Timepieces

Sports Collectibles

3-Dimensonal

Rare Books / Manuscripts

Western European art represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and Classical modes of production. After the mid-19th century modern, abstract and conceptual forms gained favor.

Western European

Comics

Large Scale (over 6')

Visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues. Common forms and media include spray paint graffiti, stencil graffiti, poster art, sticker art, street installations, and sculpture.

Pop / Street Art / Graffiti

Indigenous & Native

Chicago Imagists

East Asian

Medieval / Renaissance 

Non-Western

Southeast & South Asian

<h3>Art produced by self-taught or naïve art makers. Typically, those labeled as outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.</h3>

Folk / Outsider / Self Taught

American Regionalism

Literary Arts

Mosiac

Includes manuscripts, prints, drawings, collages, and paintings on paper.

Works on Paper

Prints and Drawings

West Asia  & North Africa

Middle Eastern & Islamic

Land Art

<h3>Artistic expression of Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, as well as Latin and Hispanic Americans living in other regions. Latin American art has roots in the many different indigenous cultures that inhabited the Americas before European colonization in the 16th-century.</h3>

Hispanic/Latinx

The Newberry Library is an independent research library located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood that has been free and open to all since 1887. The Newberry fosters a deeper understanding of our world by inspiring research and learning in the humanities and encouraging conversations about ideas that matter to diverse audiences. Our mission is rooted in a growing and accessible collection of rare and historical materials that spans more than six centuries of human experience. Image: View of the Newberry Library. Credit: Anne Ryan

Newberry Library

Tandem Press is a professional print publisher and gallery affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Tandem invites internationally renowned artists to create original fine art prints in its printmaking studio. Using an array of traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques, Tandem has established itself as a leader among international fine art print publishers. Visitors may tour the printmaking studio, view the current exhibition in the gallery, and browse prints in the print study center. Tandem Press has produced original fine art editions with over 100 artists spanning many artistic styles and subject matter. Current inventory includes work by&nbsp;Derrick Adams, Richard Bosman, Suzanne Caporael, Robert Cottingham,&nbsp;Lesley Dill, Jim Dine, Jeffrey Gibson, Michelle Grabner, José Lerma, Marie Lorenz, Ikeda Manabu, Robert Kelly, David Lynch, Judy Pfaff, Alison Saar, Swoon,&nbsp;Mickalene Thomas, Marie Watt, Dyani White Hawk, and others. Gallery exhibitions feature curated selections from the Tandem Press inventory and affiliated artists. Image: Tandem Press’s booth at The Armory Show 2025

Tandem Press

Dragonfly Gallery, established in March 2020 and located in East Garfield Park, is committed to fostering inspiration and providing essential resources and opportunities for artists and the community.We host monthly exhibitions featuring a diverse array of artists, from new and emerging to established, focusing on BIPOC artists. In addition, our gallery includes a curated retail space that showcases local artisans, jewelry makers, and vendors.Dragonfly Gallery offers workshops, seminars, and classes for artists and families to engage the community further.&nbsp;All exhibitions are available for online viewing and purchase, ensuring accessibility for all.&nbsp;Opening receptions are on the first Saturday of each exhibition. Subsequent viewings available online and by appointment only.&nbsp;Image: View of gallery, courtesy Dragonfly Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Dragonfly Gallery & Creative Spaces

Featuring affordable fine art prints and works-on-paper by both local and international artists, CPC is Chicago’s longest-running fine art printmaking workshop, where gallery visitors mingle with printmakers as they create on the presses. CPC also offers classes in etching, lithography, relief, screen printing, and book arts. For over 36 years the studio has been a world class, professional destination for both printmakers and print enthusiasts.&nbsp; CPC’s gallery walls and flat files are home to the works of over 50 artists, including: Hiroshi Ariyama, Tony Fitzpatrick, Michael Goro, Susan Hall, Teresa James, Raeleen Kao, Amos P. Kennedy Jr., Ammarin Kuntawong, Deborah Maris Lader, Carrie Lingscheit, Kumi Obata, Jaco Putker, Alberto Cruz, Lauren Steinert, Sarah Smelser, Kitikong Tilokwattanotai, Kouki Tsuritani, Art Werger and others. Fine art prints can be purchased year round from CPC’s online store. Image: Top, (L–R): Sarah Smelser,&nbsp;Deborah Maris Lader, Kumi Obata, Lauren Steinert. Middle row: Juana Estrada Hernández, Carrie Lingscheit, Alberto Cruz, Tony Fitzpatrick. Bottom: Kouki Tsuritani, Jaco Putker, Ammarin Kuntawong, Misha Goro, Delia Touché

Chicago Printmakers Collaborative

What’s inside the Block? It depends on how you look. The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is an engine that drives questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across fields of study, with visual arts at the center. We do this by activating art’s power as a form of insight, research, and knowledge creation that makes human experience visible and material. Fueled by diverse perspectives and ways of knowing, we create shared encounters with art and with one another to deepen understandings of the world and our place within it. Through exhibitions, classes, programs, screenings, and initiatives, The Block convenes bold conversations that explore the relevance of art to our lives and that deepen our thinking. We are as committed to exploring what art can do as we are to studying what art is. Always free and open to all. Image: Block Museum&nbsp;Student Associates tour The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto, 2023

Block Museum of Art

Hyde Park Art Center, 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 2,500 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to over 1,000 public elementary school students; weekly and summer programs for 250 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. All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. Visit our <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.hydeparkart.org" target="_blank">website</a> for updated hours and info. Image: Installation View: Yasmin Spiro: Cornerstone, Hyde Park Art Center, 2025; photo by Tran Tran

Hyde Park Art Center

Bert Green Fine Art exhibits emerging, mid-career, queer and underrepresented artists. We present smart, challenging work and site-specific exhibitions, and publish original limited edition prints in various media.&nbsp; Email sign-up on our <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.bgfa.us" target="_blank">website</a>. Image: BGFA is located in the Willoughby Building on Michigan Avenue; exterior view pictured above.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bert Green Fine Art

Artist Tony Fitzpatrick passed away on October 11, 2025. Read more <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/articles/artist-tony-fitzpatrick-has-died-at-age-66" target="_blank">here</a>. Also read CGN's 2021 interview with Fitzpatrick <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/articles/a-man-walks-into-a-museum-for-tony-fitzpatrick-2021-is-a-return-to-more-than-before" target="_blank">here</a>. Image:&nbsp;Tony Fitzpatrick,&nbsp;Our Joe, Chicago 1919

Tony Fitzpatrick Studio

OS Projects is a contemporary art gallery in downtown Racine featuring visual artists in solo and small group exhibits. The gallery’s primary focus is on artists living and working in the Chicago-Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee urban corridor. While the range of media the gallery presents is broad, the exhibited artists are unified in their engagement with topical issues, experimentation with materials and processes, and adherence to craft. Artists who will be exhibiting their work at OS Projects in 2026 include Stephen Williams, Colin Matthes, Dan Devening, and Barbara Cooper. OS Projects has 4 exhibits per year.&nbsp; Openings take place on the second Saturday of February, May, August&nbsp;and November. Image: Installation view of Catherine Sollman: Gut Symmetry, 2025. Photo by Robert C Osborne.

OS Projects

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) is an independent organization that exhibits, collects, and preserves modern and contemporary art to provide transformative experiences that educate, reflect, and inspire us as individuals and a community. MMoCA fosters the exchange of ideas and creates experiences to inspire a wide audience. It is a nexus for the work of emerging and established regional, national, and international artists, serving as a catalyst for the continued development of a vigorous community of artists and provides a forum encouraging people to be challenged by, reflect on, and make connections between art and the world around them. Designed by world-renowned architect César Pelli, the Museum offers 51,500 sq. ft. of interior space, as well as the 7,100 sq. ft. Rooftop Sculpture Garden. Public amenities include spacious galleries that host rotating exhibitions, a 230-seat lecture hall, and a study center for drawings, prints, and photographs. MMoCA presents lectures, discussions, tours, and educational programming free of charge at the Museum. Additionally, MMoCA partners with regional artists for the bi-annual Gallery Night, provides a mobile art classroom to the region, and transforms downtown Madison for the annual Art Fair on the Square. Always admission-free. Museum exhibitions and most education programs at MMoCA are also free to the public. Image Courtesy of Sharon Vanorny

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA)

Located in the heart of Milwaukee, the Kim Storage Gallery is a vibrant space celebrating the creativity of Wisconsin and beyond. This gallery features a diverse mix of museum-quality artwork, ranging from innovative pieces by emerging local talents to esteemed works by established artists. It’s a dynamic hub where art enthusiasts can explore the evolving landscape of contemporary art in an inviting and accessible environment. Jan 2–Feb 14: Susan Hall. Opening Jan 16, 5–8pmFeb 27–Apr 10: Gabrielle Marie Stone. Opening Feb 27, 5-8pmApr 17–May 30: Katherine Steichen Rosing. Opening: Apr 17, 5-8pmJul 10–Aug 15: Color Play. Opening: July 17, 5-8pmAug 21–Sept 26: Tim Anderson. Opening: Aug 21, 5-8pmOct 2–Nov 7: Hector Acuna &amp; Andy Paczos. Opening: Oct 16, 5-8pmNov 13–Dec 19: Doug Fath. Opening: Nov 13, 5-8pm Image: Art by Paul Krainak

Kim Storage Gallery

Manneken Press is a fine art publisher producing original, limited edition and unique prints, portfolios and artist’s books. The prints are made by the artists working in close collaboration with Master Printer Jonathan Higgins, and are hand-printed in our own workshop. In all of our projects we respect the timeless processes of printmaking, using only the finest papers and inks, while maintaining a spirit of curiosity and experimentation. Founded in 2000, Manneken Press is recognized as a premier independent fine art press working with regional, national and international contemporary artists.&nbsp; Artists represented:Carlos Andrade, Mel Cook, Cathy Crawford, Brian Cypher, Jack Davidson, Rupert Deese, LJ Douglas, Rhea Edge, Edie Fake, Peter Feldstein, Betty Friedman, Jonathan Higgins, Catherine Howe, Richard Hull, Mary Judge, Gary Justis, Jason Karolak, Ted Kincaid, Anna Kunz, Judy Ledgerwood, Claire Lieberman, Matt Magee, Jane McNichol, Jill Moser, Brian Novatny, Tom Orr, Kate Petley, Justin Quinn, Nick Satinover, Erika Shiba, Jay Shinn, Sarah Smelser, Philip Van Keuren, Joan Winter, Brenda Zappitell. You may purchase artwork directly via our <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.artsy.net/partner/manneken-press" target="_blank">Artsy page</a>. Image: Manneken Press’s booth at the 2025 IFPDA Print Fair with prints by (L to R) Edie Fake, Judy Ledgerwood, Catherine Howe and Rupert Deese

Manneken Press

Located in the newly established Lincoln Ave North Arts District and attached to the&nbsp;Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, WING Studio is the gallery and studio/laboratory&nbsp;of CPC Founder Deborah Maris Lader. The studio features fine art printmaking,&nbsp;demonstrations, objects, and whimsical works-in-progress by the multi-hyphenate artist&nbsp;and her collaborators, and a visit will inspire and educate as Deborah generously guides&nbsp;you through her creative process.&nbsp; Image:&nbsp;Deborah Maris Lader, Can’t See the Forest for the Poet-trees, Color lithograph&nbsp;with screenprinting, 25” x 19”

Printmaking

Other Specialties

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