EXPO ART WEEK Programs
Explore more on aligning exhibitions and events during EXPO ART WEEK, April 10–16, with the EXPO ART WEEK Map
Tuesday, April 11
A Toast to the South Side
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Hours | 5:00–6:30pm
Remarks | 5:45pm
The Study at the University of Chicago | 1227 E 60th St
Gather at The Study at University of Chicago for an official toast to kick-off EXPO ART WEEK before exploring South Side exhibitions and special programs. Toast to the South Side with a specialty EXPO CHICAGO cocktail and return to Truth Be Told, nestled off the lobby of The Study with a valid EXPO ticket or VIP pass April 11–16 for a buy-one get-one cocktail, beer, or wine by the glass.
"where the light corrupts your face..."
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 4:00–7:00pm
South Side Community Art Center | 3831 S Michigan Ave
In this exhibition, Chicago-based artists Roland Knowlden, Andres L. Hernandez, and Tonika Lewis Johnson explore the social, cultural, and racial implications of built spaces and natural environments. Encompassing elements of drawing, painting, collage, installation and architecture, both artists draw upon the possibilities of new spatial realities and speculative futures.
Diaspora Stories: Selections From The CCH Pounder Collection
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours + Walkthroughs | 4:00–9:00pm
The DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center | 740 E 56th Pl
Join Danny Dunson of Legacy Brothers for guided tours throughout the evening of Diaspora Stories: Selections From The CCH Pounder Collection, featuring works from Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley and more. The CCH Pounder Collection is an ongoing, living narrative of ancestral memory and cultural tethers that connects African Americans to the Black Diaspora. As a native of Guyana, Pounder connected to the true story of Equiano, who spent much of his enslaved life in Barbados. Equiano's story contains observations of African-centered cultural practices retained by enslaved Africans in multiple regions throughout the Americas, such as Brazil and Venezuela. Admission free for EXPO ticketholders + VIPs.
Artifacts Also Die
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 4:00–7:00pm
The OI | 1155 E 58th St
Join the OI for a private after-hours viewing of the special exhibition, Artifacts Also Die. This exhibition is part of the ongoing research project—Ruins, Rubble, And Renewal: Co-existent Ruins–Exploring Iraq’s Mesopotamian Past Through Contemporary Art, led by the Iraqi-British artist and academic Hanaa Malallah, founder of the project, working in collaboration with local Iraqi artists at specific ancient sites in Iraq. Also on view is an installation, The invisible enemy should not exist, by internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Michael Rakowitz. As part of his series, the Iraqi-American artist collaborated with the OI Museum to create a reappearance of a relief from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, destroyed by Isis in 2015, on view in the permanent galleries.
A leap has no return
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 5:00–8:00pm
Blanc | 4445 S Martin Luther King Dr
Sigils promise to hinge the material to the ethereal world. For her exhibition at Blanc gallery, Maryam Taghavi borrows sigils from the Islamic occult practice of simya, which is the arrangement of letter and number in order to evoke the metaphysical powers. Imbued with feminine desire, these forms transgress to collide with recognizable forms of the everyday from the digital and material environments. This exhibition attempts to imagine wish fulfillment centered on women’s desire which ultimately subverts the patriarchal lineage of this belief system. In this exhibition both on surface and within the space, the sigils become a linguistic net to catch and harness the invisible in defiance of patriarchal domination. This exhibition nods to the Womxn, Life, Freedom revolution of Iran that bravely imagines new territories for women’s desire.
But Is It a Book? A Choose-able Path Exhibition
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 5:00–9:00pm
Meet the Curator | 6:00pm
The University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Gallery | 1100 E 57th St
One of life’s most familiar objects, the codex book, is also one of the most innovative and adaptable technologies for making and sharing meaning devised by humankind. But what makes a book a book? Must it have pages, text, and a rectangular shape to qualify? But Is It a Book? is a choose-able path exhibition that investigates the nature of the material text, considering examples from the long arc of book history, from the clay tablet to the contemporary artist’s book. Meet curator Elizabeth Frengel, Curator of Rare Books, in the gallery for discussions about the exhibition.
Aria Dean: Abattoir, U.S.A!
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 6:00–8:00pm
Curatorial Walkthrough | 6:15pm
The Renaissance Society | 5811 S Ellis Ave
Drawing from her long-term research on agricultural and industrial architecture, Aria Dean presents a new film surveying the interior of an American slaughterhouse. The work considers the importance of these structures in the development of modernist architecture and urban design, influencing the work of a generation of European architects such as Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. The omission of the slaughterhouse, or abattoir, from this narrative leads to questions about the relationship between modernism and death, as Dean engages with one such site and its entanglements with fundamental questions of humanity. Curated by Myriam Ben Salah.
The Chicago Cli-Fi Library
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 5:00–9:00pm
The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society | 5701 S Woodlawn Ave
Climate change is a great existential crisis for humanity, yet the apocalyptic prospect of global warming and its consequences hardly make themselves felt in the mainstream of cultural production. The Chicago Cli-Fi Library is a modest attempt to make sense of this creative paralysis, suggesting that art’s response to the complexity and enormity of the issue at hand can only ever be piecemeal, ad hoc, and hyper-localized–– all of which must be understood as virtuous. Named after the emerging literary genre of “climate fiction,” or “cli-fi,” and accordingly bookish in both conception and outlook, this exhibition features the work of Chicago-based artists Beate Geissler + Oliver Sann, Jenny Kendler, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, and Dan Peterman. Curated by Dieter Roelstraete.
2023 BA Thesis Exhibition
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 5:00–9:00pm
Logan Center Exhibitions | 915 E 60th St
The University of Chicago’s Department of Visual Arts and Logan Center Exhibitions present the 2023 BA Thesis Exhibition featuring works by Collin Amelsberg, Evelyn Andreoli, Savannah Bowman, Non Charoenwattanan, Trent Davis, Caitlin Ellithorpe, Rachel Hardy, Anatoli Karapanagio, Jane Kelly, Akwe McDaniels, Amy Medrano, Cecile Ngo, and Matthew Sumera. Presented by DoVA and Logan Center Exhibitions with the support of UChicago Arts.
SURVIVING THE LONG WARS: Unlikely Entanglements
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 6:30–8:00pm
Curatorial Tour | 6:30pm
Artist Talk | 7:15pm
Hyde Park Art Center | 5020 S Cornell Ave
Join curators and artists of SURVIVING THE LONG WARS for a curatorial tour and talkback exploring themes of the exhibition. The tour and talk will touch on the multiple, overlapping histories that shape our understanding of the impacts of warfare.
The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born
Tuesday, April 11
Opening Reception | 6:00–9:00pm
Arts + Public Life | 301 E Garfield Blvd
APL presents artist zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o'neal's new body of work. Focusing extensively on notions of embodiment, alternative modes of movement, imagining technologies, intimacy and collectivity in physical and digital spaces, dumas-o'neal, an APL artists-in-residence alumnae, debuts new video and photo work. A supplementary exhibition at the Arts Incubator gallery will celebrate the start of EXPO CHICAGO. In support of APL's new cohort of L1 Creative Entrepreneurship Fellows, exclusive discounts and free merchandise will be offered to EXPO guests.
Opening Celebration: Calling on the Past
Tuesday, April 11
Extended Gallery Hours | 5:00–9:00pm
Opening Reception | 6:00pm
Remarks + Curatorial Walkthrough | 6:30pm
Performances + Gallery Talks | 7:00–9:00pm
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago | 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue
An evening of art, performance, and conversation in celebration of the special exhibition Calling on the Past: Selections from the Collection. The after-hours reception features performances by puppetry artist Samuel J. Lewis II and poet Audrey Petty as well as gallery talks. Exhibitions on view also include: not all realisms: photography, Africa, and the long 1960s; and The Metropol Drama.
Michael Darling & Lucas Reiner: Nature as a Metaphor for the Human Condition
Tuesday, April 11
7:00pm
Athenaeum Center | 2936 N Southport Ave
Join Athenaeum Center for an evening with Los Angeles- and Berlin-based artist Lucas Reiner and Michael Darling, former chief-curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and founder of Museum Exchange. Through the lens of Reiner’s collection, they will explore nature, the universality of art, and its bridge between the physical and immaterial - the secular and the spiritual.
The event is in conjunction with the world premiere of Lucas Reiner’s The Stations, presented by the Athenaeum Center. This collection engages the profound capacity of art to embody a universal human longing to comprehend suffering, loss, and the passage of time.
This will be an intimate evening in the Paradiso, with an opportunity to view this impressive collection, and meet the artist. The Paradiso Bar will be serving your favorite cocktails and a curated selection of wines and craft beers.
This event is free, though we welcome donations to support the exhibition.
Wednesday, April 12
At the Limits of Life and Empathy: Dario Robleto and Prof. Malcolm MacIver in Conversation
Wednesday, April 12
4:00–5:30pm
Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center (Northwestern University) | 2133 Sheridan Rd
How might art model long-term thinking in times of societal and ecological transformation? Biomedical Engineer Malcolm MacIver and artist Dario Robleto explore how art and science contemplate the physical and temporal limits of human life. Presented by The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
Newcity’s Breakout Artists–Twentieth Anniversary Edition Exhibition
Wednesday, April 12
Artists Panel | 6:30pm
5:00–9:00pm
Chicago Artists Coalition | 2130 W Fulton St
Every spring, Newcity editors and critics choose a list of the “next generation of image makers” in Chicago. Join selected artists from the Twentieth Anniversary Edition for an artists panel and opening reception.
From BordersCruzadas: A Collaborative Story
Wednesday, April 12
Exhibition Viewing | 5:00pm
Panel Discussion and Reception | 6:00–7:30pm
Additional Viewings by Appointment: Tuesdays/Thursdays noon - 4pm (through May 12)
ART WORKS Projects | 625 N Kingsbury St, Chicago
Immigration is one of the most politicized issues in the United States, as politicians across both aisles debate the fate of people fleeing violence, poverty, trafficking, hunger, and political instability. ART WORKS Projects presents From BordersCruzadas to Borderlines, a discussion between photographer Will Sands, Oscar Castillo (BordersCruzada project] and Cathy Edelman, from Illinois based nonprofit CASE Art Fund [Borderlines exhibition], presenting two sides of a very complex issue facing the US Southern border. BordersCruzadas: A Collaborative Story recognizes that people impacted by displacement are often excluded from the conversations that determine their fate. Through documentary photography and content collaboratively created with four people fleeing their homeland, BordersCruzadas explores the physical and symbolic boundaries that define the lived experience of those seeking to cross the United States’ southern border. Borderlines is CASE Art Fund’s ongoing photographic exhibition about the Juarez/Texas/New Mexico border. At EXPO CHICAGO, CASE will recreate the Sunland Park, NM desert, the site of the most recent crossings in the El Paso region. The exhibition includes photographs of the terrain, objects found in the desert, photographs and videos of helicopters and border patrol searching the desert, and a poignant interview from a local proprietor whose business is the site of most desert crossings today and in 2022. The public is invited to click here to register for this free event.
Toward an Anti Racist Art Ecosystem in the World
Wednesday, April 12
6:00–7:30pm
School of the Art Institute of Chicago | 112 S Michigan Ave, Ballroom
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) presents Toward an Anti-Racist Art Ecosystem in the World, a panel discussion convening thought leaders from throughout the international art industry to raise necessary questions and propose actions toward anti-racist practices in art production, exhibition, administration, and education. Panelists include Zoe Butt, Victoria Noorthoorn, Smooth Nzewi, and Vipash Purichanont. The Toward an Anti-Racist Art Ecosystem conference series generously supported by Hindman Auctions. The event is free and open to the public.
Artists Jessi Reaves and Diane Simpson in Conversation with Historian Kate Nesin
Wednesday, April 12
6:00–7:30pm
The Arts Club of Chicago | 201 E Ontario St
Art historian Kate Nesin moderates a conversation between artists Diane Simpson and Jessi Reaves, both of whom incorporate furniture and design into their sculptural practices, exploring functionality, inherent formalism, and cultural reference. RSVP required.
Thursday, April 13
Theodora Allen: Solitaire
Thursday, April 13
Opening Reception | 9:00–11:00pm
Soccer Club Club | 2923 N Cicero Ave
Soccer Club Club is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist Theodora Allen. Drawing from music, myth, and the natural world, Allen’s paintings investigate themes of cycles and regeneration. In recent paintings, images of celestial bodies, serpents, delirium-inducing plants, and simple machines emerge from geometric structures. The confluence of realist and graphic forms synthesize to form an uncanny landscape— an emblematic space between the physical world and the mind. Please join us for an Opening Reception to celebrate Theodora Allen at Soccer Club Club. Live musical performance by Emmett Kelly Refreshments by Land & Sea Dept.
Friday, April 14
The Annual Breakfast
Friday, April 14
9:00–11:00pm
Chicago Artists Coalition | 2130 W Fulton St
The Annual Breakfast and connects artists, curators, collectors, and art enthusiasts from around the world, while getting a glimpse into what’s happening in Chicago’s emerging art scene through Newcity’s Breakout Artists Exhibition.
Shift: Music, Meaning, Context
Friday, April 14
Artist Talk | Cecil McDonald Jr. | 5:30–6:00pm
Opening Reception | 5:00–7:00pm
Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S Michigan Ave
Shift: Music, Meaning, Context explores how music changes in form and interpretation as it moves across time, bodies, and place. Exhibiting artists include Bani Abidi, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Tony Cokes, Jeremy Deller, Hassan Hajjaj, Sven Johne, Andre Lützen, Cecil McDonald Jr., Emeka Ogboh, and Taryn Simon. Shift is produced in collaboration between Goethe-Institut Chicago and The Museum of Contemporary Photography, held on-site at the museum.
Exhibiting artist Cecil McDonald will be on-site for an in-person discussion of his work in the exhibition. McDonald Jr. (b. 1965 Chicago) has received honors from the Midwest Voices & Visions Award, the 3Arts Teaching Artist Award, Aperture First PhotoBook 2017 shortlist, and the Lucerne, Switzerland Residency awarded by The Swiss Benevolent Society.
HOW ON EARTH: Artists Address Climate Change
Friday, April 14
Artist Talk | 5:30pm
Musical Performance | 6:30pm
21c Museum Hotel Chicago | 55 E Ontario St
Featuring: Janet Biggs, Helina Metaferia and Jennifer Wen Ma join Elizabeth Corr (NRDC) and Anne Verhallen (ATLT) to discuss their artistic practices, their works featured in EXPO CHICAGO and the inspiration behind them. Followed by musical performance by Kinsella & Pulse. Cocktails and light food provided. Free with RSVP.
Opening Receptions at Kavi Gupta
Friday, April 14
6:00–9:00pm
Allana Clarke | 835 W Washington Blvd
Esmaa Mohamoud | 219 N Elizabeth St
Trinidadian-American artist Allana Clarke’s work contends with ideas of Blackness, the binding nature of bodily signification, and the possibility to create non-totalizing identifying structures. African-Canadian artist Esmaa Mohamoud is interested in the gap between contemporary culture's oversimplification and diminishment of Black people, compared to the complexity, richness, and diversity of their actual lived experiences.
Jessie Edelman + Julia Bland Solo Exhibitions
Friday, April 14
Opening Reception| 5:00–8:00pm | Opening Reception
ANDREW RAFACZ | 1749 W Chicago Ave
Julia Bland's approach to the rhythm and weight of a repeated geometric form continues through a series of intertwined material processes. The work addresses the repetitious act of weaving, cutting, burning, sewing, dying and painting. Shedding definitive notions of creation and destruction, the surfaces Bland creates emerge as the immediate record of an evolving, dialectical transformation of material concerns, in space. Jessie Edelman’s newest series of paintings continue her poetic investigation of solitude. Her work investigates real and desired interior scenes with focal points of fruit and symbolic objects. The spaces they occupy are dynamic and rich with detail, but also limn a sense of contemplation, longing and mystery of place.
Friday Happy Hour at Retreat at Currency Exchange Café
Friday, April 14
5:00–9:00pm
Retreat at Currency Exchange Café | 305 E Garfield Blvd
Kick it with the Washington Park community at Retreat at Currency Exchange Café, Theaster Gates' and Rebuild Foundation's coffee house and incubator for creative entrepreneurs in the culinary and hospitality arts. Savor cuisine by Rebuild's chef-in-residence Ariya Taylor while enjoying craft cocktails curated by Rebuild's hospitality training staff. Enjoy live music by local musicians while experiencing firsthand Gates' revered creative placemaking practice coming to life on the South Side of Chicago. Free with RSVP to sabina@rebuild-foundation.org.
Natasha Moustache: Lerozyon (l-EURO-zhuhn)
Friday, April 14
Opening Reception | 5:00–8:00pm
C33-Columbia College Chicago | 33 Ida B Wells Dr, First Floor
Lerozyon (l-EURO-zhuhn) examines the daily rituals of cultural and botanical preservation that anchor the Seychellois people and traditions to their land despite an economic reliance on Western tourism and the steady cultural erosion endured as a result. The Seychelles Islands, loosely tethered to the Horn of Africa, is an archipelago consisting of over 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. It has been called Paradise, the Original Colony, and the Garden of Eden. It is also where Natasha Moustache made thousands of portraits and vibrant landscapes while revisiting their grandparents' homeland. Meticulously edited and exhibited within a lush, domestic installation Lerozyon (l-EURO-zhuhn) brings humanity and dimension to the islands that moves beyond the paradisiacal facade that has outwardly defined it.
Art Shay | Richard Shay: Photographers
Friday, April 14
Opening Reception | 5:00–9:00pm
Gallery Victor | 300 W Superior St
For over 70 years, Art Shay documented his life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor, and empathy. Shay was a Chicago-based freelance photographer, landing thousands of assignments for LIFE Magazine, Time, Sports Illustrated and other national publications. Shay photographed nine US Presidents and major literary, business, entertainment, science, and political figures of the 20th century. Shay's photography is included in the permanent collections of museums including the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Surrounded by the influence of his photojournalist father, Richard Shay would go on to follow in his father’s path. Richard worked in Chicago as photographer for the Oprah Winfrey Show at Harpo Studios and became the family photographer for Michael Jordan. He would go on to tour with The Smashing Pumpkins.
Spring River North Gallery Walk
Friday, April 14
5:00–8:00pm
River North Gallery District
Join the River North Gallery District for the Spring River North Gallery Walk. Participating galleries include: Addington Gallery, Jean Albano Gallery, Hilton Asmus Gallery, Carl Hammer Gallery, Gallery Victor, Zg Gallery. Tour the art galleries on a self-guided walk while meeting artists, curators, and gallery staff. Finish with cocktails at any of the restaurants in the neighborhood. The Spring River North Gallery Walk is free and open to the public. Shows continue through April 2023.
THIS IS TEXT BASED ART
Friday, April 14
Opening Reception + Performance | 6:00–8:00pm
ENGAGE Projects | 864 N Ashland Ave
Highlighting the work of Adam Daley Wilson, ENGAGE Projects’ gallery will be filled with paintings and drawings using the ‘personal writing system’ in which the artist explores abstraction through text. Wilson’s work traverses the history of text-based painting, dating back to its earliest origins as cave paintings and its evolution to modern canvas-and-stretcher paintings. Wilson will perform on the night of the opening, demystifying his process of creation by completing a large-scale work in the presence of an audience.
The table in the formal room takes the form of the room
Friday, April 14
Reception | 6:00–8:00pm
Produce Model | 1918 S Canalport Ave
The table in the formal room takes the form of the room is a two-person show by artists Jackie Furtado and Jessica Tang. The exhibition title is borrowed from Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology (2006), which serves as a framework for the exhibition. Through formally rigorous experiments with photographic processes, video, and site-specific sculpture, the exhibition centers on the objects and rituals of the artists’ immediacy and intimacy.
Mana Contemporary Chicago Open House
Friday, April 14
6:00–9:00pm
Mana Contemporary Chicago | 2233 S Throop St
Meet artists, curators, gallerists, and collectors at the Mana Contemporary Chicago Open House. This event is FREE and Open to the public.
Spring Fine Art at Hindman
Friday, April 14
6:00–9:00pm
Hindman Auctions | 1550 West Carroll Avenue
Join Hindman for an after-hours highlights preview of our upcoming spring Fine Art auctions. Featuring artists of the Chicago art world, stop by to explore works by Gertrude Abercrombie, Theaster Gates and many more.
Let Me Be No Nearer
Friday, April 14
6:00–10:00pm
The Plan | 610 N Albany
Let Me Be No Nearer enlists the work of four artists to explore this fissure between body and experience, vessel and perception. Andrew Bearnot, Brian Jucas, Hai-Wen Lin, Jonathan Lanier employ body in ways that stimulate a distinct and intense response from viewers. Their artwork is haptic, intimate, exultant, isolating and vulnerable. Most of all, their work reflects the indexicality of body and consciousness, and spans the unfathomable fault that divides us all.
When body is referenced in this exhibition it is in the context of existing within a singular form. A specific corpse that is the courier of perception, the thing that metes brutality and receives it, caresses and is caressed; a life vessel. This interpretation of body is broadly universal and unifying, we all have bodies and we all are bodies. It allows us to sympathetically indulge in the sensual pleasure and discomfort of others, creating interstices that transport us into the lived experiences that exist outside of ourselves. We do it every time we look at art. However, the vicarious arousal of dropping into an artist’s experience is intrinsically colonizing. It is unavoidably mediated by our own bodies, histories and emotions. We can never authentically understand one another’s experiences because the multiplicity of perception is infinite and inimitable.
Celebrate Neon Infinite
Friday, April 14
6:00–9:00pm
Ken Saunders Gallery | 2041 W Carroll Ave Suite C-321
Celebrate Neon Infinite, a survey of artists working in Neon and Plasma. Featuring John Bannon, Jacob Fishman, Zoelle Nagib and Jason Pickleman. Several of the artist will be present. Drinks and snacks will be served.
Perhaps Blue is a Cool Color, After All: Artist Talk with Eseosa Edebiri
Friday, April 14
6:00–9:00pm
ACRE Projects | 2439 S Oakley Ave
Join ACRE Projects for a talk by interdisciplinary artist Eseosa Edebiri, in conjunction with her solo show Perhaps Blue is a Cool Color, After All. Edebiri’s work reflects on autonomy and intergenerational trauma—while maintaining a slight, cheeky playfulness. Her practice explores elements of touch and accessibility, representations of BIPOC communities, instances of police brutality, and the experiences of those who are chronically ill and disabled. Edebiri aims to engage these moments without desensitizing us to the trauma of it all, sharing the sparks of joy and fleeting happiness that we experience while we're alive.
HILARITIES & UNREST: A Black Sonic Experience
Friday, April 14
7:00–10:00pm
AMFM | Epiphany Center for the Arts, The Chase Room | 201 S Ashland Ave
HILARITIES & UNREST: A Black Sonic Experience spotlights AMFM exhibiting artist, Lola Ayisha Ogbara's new sound project. With AMFM's booth featuring Black emerging artists, this event caters to the Black experience with curated projections and DJs.
Irene Wa.: Performance and Gallery Talk with Artist
Friday, April 14
7:00–9:00pm
Goldfinch | 319 N Albany Ave
Irene Wa.’s second solo exhibition at Goldfinch, Crisálida de sal (Chrysalis of Salt) features new ceramic sculptures and drawings that spring from the Mexican artist’s recent study of diphonic singing (also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, and polyphonic overtone singing), a set of techniques in which the vocalist manipulates the resonances of their vocal tract in order to create the perception of multiple notes being sung at once.
Saturday, April 15
Tour of Art for the Future with curator Abigail Satinsky
Saturday, April 15
11:00am–12:00pm
DePaul Art Museum | 935 W Fullerton Ave
Join DePaul Art Museum for a guided tour of Art for the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities with exhibition co-curator Abigail Satinsky. Focusing on the seminal 1980s activist campaign Artists Call Against US Intervention in Central America, this exhibition highlights Artists Call’s history through a selection of activities and works from the 31 exhibitions and 1,100+ artists who participated in New York City. Art for the Future references Artists Call’s legacy today in new forms of inter-American solidarity networks and visual alliances. This exhibition is organized by Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) and curated by Erina Duganne, Associate Professor of Art History, Texas State University and Abigail Satinsky, Program Officer & Curator, Arts and Culture for the Wagner Foundation.
Poems While You Wait
Saturday, April 15
11:00am–12:00pm
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art | 756 N Milwaukee Ave
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Intuit is pleased to partner with Poems While You Wait, a collective of poets and their manual typewriters whose mission is to provide patrons with a magical, unexpected, unpretentious and decontextualized encounter with poetry. Participation is easy!
The Black Girlhood Altar
Saturday, April 15
12:00–2:00pm
Chicago Cultural Center | 78 E Washington St
A Long Walk Home’s artists Scheherazade Tillet, Leah Gipson, Robert Narciso, and the youth girl leaders will lead a workshop on The Black Girlhood Altar at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Learning Lab. This workshop will provide the history of The Black Girlhood Altar and altar making as a self-care/healing practice. The public is encouraged to attend and offer items of care and healing around Black girlhood to The Black Girlhood Altar. We will welcome guests from EXPO Chicago and The American Educational Research Association. *Guests are encouraged to bring a donated altar offerings to this workshop.
Artist Talk, Patrick Eugène and Lauren Tate Baeza
Saturday, April 15
1:00pm
Mariane Ibrahim | 437 N Paulina St
Artist Patrick Eugène and Lauren Tate Baeza, the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art at the High Museum of Art, discuss Eugène’s newest body of work created for his solo exhibition, 50 LBS, with the gallery. RSVP to event@marianeibrahim.com.
Kelly Kristin Jones: Plinths for the People
Saturday, April 15
Performance | 2:00pm
21c Museum Hotel Chicago | 55 E Ontario St
Plinths, the heavy platforms that hold up statues and monuments, are by their very definition not made for all. Plinths for the People takes the historical plinth and turns it into a grand stage activated by the community. Kelly Kristin Jones ensures that all stories, voices, and visions are acknowledged as community members speak their truth and perform their triumphs, creating their own kind of monument. Part of a two-part program, Rewriting Art History, hosted by 21c Museum Hotel Chicago.
Diaspora Stories: Selections From The CCH Pounder Collection
Curatorial Guided Tour | 2:00–3:00pm
The DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center | 740 E 56th Pl
Join Danny Dunson of Legacy Brothers for a guided tour of Diaspora Stories: Selections From The CCH Pounder Collection, featuring works from Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley and more. The CCH Pounder Collection is an ongoing, living narrative of ancestral memory and cultural tethers that connects African Americans to the Black Diaspora. As a native of Guyana, Pounder connected to the true story of Equiano, who spent much of his enslaved life in Barbados. Equiano's story contains observations of African-centered cultural practices retained by enslaved Africans in multiple regions throughout the Americas, such as Brazil and Venezuela. Admission free for EXPO ticketholders + VIPs.
Poetics in Practice: Art Writers Panel
Saturday, April 15
2:00–3:00pm
Poetry Foundation | 61 W Superior St
In-person and via livestream | poetryfoundation.org
Join Poetry Foundation for a panel on art writing with Camille Bacon, Amarie Cemone Gipson, Daria Simone Harper, and Jessica Lynne. Taking up the question of “poetics in practice,” the panel will consider the function and responsibility of art writing in the contemporary moment, the lineages we draw from and are in dialogue with, and what it means to build a viable writing life as writers working in a field that has historically underfunded the production and development of critical discourse. Together, we will ponder, imagine, muse, and speculate towards a reality that can better support the creation and proliferation of our work, as well as that of fellow writers.
Barbara Kasten in conversation with Stephanie Cristello
Saturday, April 15
Artist Talk | 3:00pm
Book Signing | 4:00pm
Graham Foundation | 4 W Burton Pl
Join artist Barbara Kasten alongside author and editor Stephanie Cristello for the official book launch of the monograph Barbara Kasten: Architecture & Film (2015–2020), published by Skira. Delving into unearthed comparisons and histories, this conversation contextualizes Kasten’s ongoing investigations into how moving images and perception play within and through architectural forms. Presented in partnership with Skira. Free with RSVP.
Value Prints
Saturday, April 15
Public Reception | 3:00–7:00pm
Buddy, Garland Gallery | 78 E Washington St
To hold a printed work is to push against an intangible digital world. LATITUDE provides access to the technology and knowledge that allows artists to self-produce sustainably. Value Prints is an exhibition of images made by makers reflecting each other—works featured include photographs, prints on fabric, and images made sculptural. By showcasing the work of staff who run the space, volunteers that support the space, and DIY users that flourish within its access, LATITUDE members support one another by embracing a possibility that is wholly unique to Chicago. Drinks will be served.
o_Man! And the Legacy of Curation
Saturday, April 15
3:00pm
21c Museum Hotel Chicago | 55 E Ontario St
Museum of Contemporary Photography's Karen Irvine, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, and Kristin Taylor, Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, will lead a discussion with Natalie Krick and Kelli Connell whose collaborative project o_Man! recontextualizes Edward Steichen’s renowned 1955 exhibition, The Family of Man, which included 503 photographs narrating the human experience from a distinctly western, patriarchal perspective, and which traveled to thirty-seven countries on six continents until 1994. By removing and reordering the images with text from The Family of Man’s original catalogue and Steichen’s oeuvre, Connell and Krick offer a reconsideration of which stories are told within museum spaces, by whom, and for whom. Part of a two-part program, Rewriting Art History, hosted by 21c Museum Hotel Chicago.
Sebastian Mekas in Conversation with Cameron Worden
Saturday, April 15
4:00–5:00pm
Mana Contemporary Chicago | 2233 S Throop, 5th Floor
Please join Sebastian Mekas, Director of Jonas Mekas Studio in conversation with Cameron Worden from the Chicago Film Society. Sebastian Mekas and Cameron Worden will be talking about the current exhibition, Jonas Mekas, Open Archives, presented in partnership with Monira Foundation.
Proof of Humanity: Bridging the Phygital Divide Through Tokenization, Blockchain and industry 4.0
Saturday, April 15
4:30–5:30pm | Panel Discussion
5:30–6:30pm | Cocktail Hour
Women's Athletic Club | 626 Michigan Ave
Proof of Humanity: Bridging the Phygital Divide Through Tokenization, Blockchain and Industry 4.0. Connecting physical and digital objects through tokenization: why do it, how is it done, what data does it generate and how can we use it to build the decentralized arts patronage of the future. Featuring panelists: Eduardo Kac, Michael Stark and Roland dela Cuesta. Moderated by Erika Knierim (Nomic Consulting).
Danced Dialogues
Saturday, April 15
5:00–6:00pm
South Asia Institute | 1925 S Michigan Ave
Dipika Mukherjee recites as dancers Sigma Satabdhi Pradhan and Harini Nilakantan metamorphose poetry from an auditory to a visual experience with their Odissi and Bharatanatyam inspired dance compositions.
Group Exhibition 2023
Saturday, April 15
Opening Reception | 6:00–9:00pm
M. LeBlanc | 3514 W Fullerton Ave
M. LeBlanc is proud to present a group exhibition of new work by artists Israel Aten, Zoe Barcza, Sven Loven, Isabelle Frances McGuire, and Mindy Rose Schwartz. On view from April 15th through May 27th, 2023.
An Evening of Improvised Jazz as part of Raque Ford’s solo exhibition A Better Liar
Saturday, April 15
6:00–9:00pm
Good Weather | 1524 S. Western Ave, Ste. 119-121, Building A
Good Weather has invited Chicago-based players and jazz musicians for a night of improvised music that engages with artist Raque Ford’s dance floor and transforms the installation into a social sculpture.
John Knight and Libby Rothfeld
Saturday, April 15
Opening Reception | 6:00-9:00pm
Apparatus Projects | 1500 S Western Ave, Suite 407
Apparatus is pleased to present a two-person exhibition featuring new work by Libby Rothfeld (b.1990) and John Knight (b.1986). Rothfeld and Knight's materially sensitive practices will be employed in two new architectural interventions that will play with and against one another and the gallery located within the Midland Warehouses.
SOUTH X SOUTH: Andile Dyalvane
Saturday, April 15
7:00–10:30pm
Blanc Gallery | 4445 S Martin Luther King Dr
SOUTH X SOUTH centers around the screening of the short film, iThongo, and a discussion between Andile and independent curator Ashara Ekundayo. iThongo documents the gathering of Andile’s OoJola clan in his home village of Ngobozana in the Eastern Cape for a ritual centered around Andile’s animist ceramics, a healing response to the legacy of apartheid and historic land dispossession; book launches for Southern Guild artists Zizipho Poswa and Zanele Muholi; House Music from Celeste Alexander, aka CelestetheDJ, The First Lady of House, the only female DJ from the earliest days of Chicago House; and a performance by Chicago’s AFRICAN DANCE AND MUSIC INSTITUTE as a welcoming response to Andile. This event is free and open to the public.
Lampo Performance: Birgit Ulher and Nicolas Collins
Saturday, April 15
7:00pm
Graham Foundation | 4 W Burton Pl
Birgit Ulher and Nicolas Collins perform at the Graham Foundation as part of the Chicago-based Lampo performance series. Lampo. At the Graham, Collins (!Trumpet) and Ulher (Trumpet!) perform together and present solo sound and video work. !Trumpet + Trumpet! are two trumpets and two very different approaches—one electronic, the other acoustic. While Collins works with a computer program and cobbled hardware, Ulher uses metal sheets, radios, milk frothers, and other everyday objects. Their diametrically opposed sound production leads to oddly similar sonic results. Presented in partnership with Lampo; additional support provided by the Goethe-Institut Chicago. Free with RSVP at grahamfoundation.org.
FFFashion Show
Saturday, April 15
7:00–10:00pm
Congruent Space | 1216 W Grand Ave
Elevate Your Runway Experience with FFFashion: A Collaboration between Chicago Fashion Coalition (CFC) and Congruent Space (CS). Combating the narrative that fashion is undervalued in the art world and showcasing its connection to other art forms, the FFFashion Runway Show will be a technological feast for the senses, incorporating augmented reality, virtual reality, lighting design, and projection mapping to enhance the runway experience. The title "FFFashion" has a multi-layered meaning, representing full amounts of color, the future of fashion, form and function, and an infinite amount of possibilities depending on what the viewer perceives as the true meaning.
SPACORE: C*NTY & CLOWNISH PARTY
Saturday, April 15
8:00pm
Co-Prosperity | 3219 S Morgan St
SPACORE is a satirical horror spa interrogating wellness and labor in the midst of global illness featuring new 2D, 3D, digital artworks, immersive installation, interactive performance, and absurdist spa treatments by an exciting group of over 40 artists from around the country. Join us for the C*NTY & CLOWNISH PARTY for performances, dancing, live music, drinks, and a custom cocktail served from a fountain of blood! C*NTS & CLOWNS ONLY.
For Those Without Choice
Saturday, April 15
Closing Party | 8:00–10:00pm
Weinberg/Newton Gallery | 688 N Milwaukee Ave
For Those Without Choice features text-based ephemera, posters, and signs are exhibited alongside photographic and sculptural artworks that support pro-choice claims by other means and offer views onto the multiple outcomes of choice. For Those Without Choice is presented in partnership with Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL). PPIL is uniquely positioned to meet this moment head-on, centering equitable access to care in the communities they serve and leading the fight to reclaim and advance our rights. PPIL is innovating health care delivery, advocating for legislation to protect providers and patients, and advancing a world in which reproductive freedom is a reality for all people.
Sunday, April 16
Katrin Schnabl: EWNS
Sunday, April 16
Opening Reception | 1:00–4:00pm
FACILITY | 3616 N Milwaukee Ave
EWNS is an exploration of direction and dimension via line, texture, form, light and movement. Artist/designer Katrin Schnabl manipulates chroma-sheer fabrics through a process both mathematical and intuitive to “paint” portals, altars and spaces of memory that take the structured form of sculpture or the implied, functional forms of scrolls. EWNS is an initialism for East, West, North, South and will be a site specific project that repurposes sculptural pieces from Schnabl’s PORTAL and VOLUTION series and will be activated with moving bodies on occasion throughout its showing. Opening reception features live activations choreographed by Nicolas Blanc and performed by Evan Boersma, Lucia Connolly, Yumi Kanazawa and Davide Oldano.
Must-See
Sunday, April 16
Closing Reception | 1:00–4:00pm
LVL3 | 542 N Milwaukee Ave #3
Marking the celebration of its 13th year of operation, LVL3 proudly announces Must-See, a five-person group exhibition featuring Pamela Ramos, Libbi Ponce, Juan Neira, Montgomery Smith, and Fraser Taylor. For Must-See we have invited several artists previously featured at LVL3 to respond to themes of coming of age and unluckiness. Microwave the left-over gas station sushi and put on your favorite oversized, esoteric red bubble band t-shirt. It’s time for the story of a botched rite of passage. You gathered your belongings after being caught plagiarizing, and now you’re on your way to the principal’s office. You are bored, you are boring, remember when you were 13? Life was so much better then! You had Claire’s…they fell off, didn’t they? But that is not what this show is about. It is our birthday; this is our party and we are about to blow out the candles.
Mellon Archives Innovation Programs
Sunday, April 16
2:00–7:00pm
Stony Island Arts Bank | 6760 Stony Island Avenue
Join Theaster Gates' Rebuild Foundation as they celebrate the centennial of the Stony Island Arts Bank with a day dedicated to activating their archival collections. Beginning at 2:00pm, enjoy coffee and cocktails while listening to the live digitization of the Frankie Knuckles Collection, a collection of over 4,000 vinyl and ephemera belonging to the Godfather of House Music. At 3:00pm, journey upstairs to the second floor of the Arts Bank for a dialogic exploration of specific objects from Rebuild's four permanent archives with a special guest as part of Rebuild's Mellon Archives Innovation Program. Following our collections talk, join us in the Johnson Lounge for a special Sunday Service set with DJ Duane Powell from 4:00–7:00pm. Every other Sunday, DJ Duane Powell transforms the Arts Bank into a space of liberatory potential and spiritual release with sounds inspired by the Frankie Knuckles Collection. Rebuild Foundation's collections are undergoing extensive archiving to ensure that the collections remained preserved and accessible for years to come. For this reason, the second floor of the Stony Island Arts Bank will only be open during the 3:00pm Mellon Archives Innovation Program. Free with RSVP to sabina@rebuild-foundation.org.