VISUAL ARTS & Culture
Reviews and reporting on Chicago’s visual art scene.
The unreal world
At LVL3, artists Kate Hefferan and Brit Krohmer make peace with the simulation.
The future looks . . . uncertain
Non Charoenwattananon shares the fruits of his artistic labor at Timeless Art Gallery.
The World Cup runneth over
A group show at Elise Seigenthaler Gallery offers a conceptual take on soccer.
Magic is the medium
At the Elmhurst Art Museum, illusionist Jeanette Andrews hides everything in plain sight.
On VIEW this week
The unreal world
“The shroud the slip the surface the stain” through 8/16 at LVL3
The World Cup runneth over
“The Soccer Show” through 8/22 at Elise Seigenthaler Gallery
Magic is the medium
“On Wonder, Mind, & Magic” through 8/23 at Elmhurst Art Museum
At Mickey, Leonardo Kaplan interrogates how images build beliefs
“thirteen” through 8/2 at Mickey
A patchwork of love and labor at Andrew Rafacz
“Sorri fi maaga dawg . . . “ through 8/1 at Andrew Rafacz
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60 wrd/min
Art critic and writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby
The future looks . . . uncertain
Non Charoenwattananon shares the fruits of his artistic labor at Timeless Art Gallery.
The unsettling beauty of the life cycle
Chicago-based artist Victor Olaoye paints the never-ending loop of death and rebirth.
Hothouse
Curator Cara Cheng demarcates the different atmospheres of Chicago and Taiwan.
Everything in Visual arts & Culture
About aboutism
A Gertie curator wonders what we owe the art we look at, and what it owes us in return.
Put down your phone and pick up a map
Explore Wisconsin’s grottoes—immersive built environments made by self-taught artists.
At Mickey, Leonardo Kaplan interrogates how images build beliefs
The number 13 is a container for fear, hope, and faith.
A patchwork of love and labor at Andrew Rafacz
Lush textile works from Krystle Lemonias hold personal and political histories.
Step inside time itself at Weatherproof
Chicago artist Sara Grose channels the representational reality of natural history museums.
The frenzied marks of Willem de Kooning
This landmark exhibition is the first to focus on the artist’s drawings, and features exceptional paintings as well.
Samuel Schwindt shapes leather like poetry
At Ignition Projects, the artist treats the material as both wild thing and protective veil.
A first-of-its-kind exhibition at the MCA explores the impact of dancehall and reggaeton
Linking Lee “Scratch” Perry to Bad Bunny, “Dancing the Revolution” maps Caribbean resistance onto contemporary art.
‘Chicano Camera Culture’ maps out Chicano contributions to photography
“It’s part of American photography.”
UIC has a James Turrell, and it’s falling apart
Hard Scrabble Sky was a landmark as the world’s first free urban Skyspace. Two decades later, the LED lights are burned out, the granite is cracked, and the university seeks funding for repairs.
‘Between Us’ brings together neurodiverse artists from Osaka and Chicago
The artists demonstrate how exchange and connection are a vital part of art-making.
Flowers in the mirror, moon in the water
At Wrightwood 659, artist Martin Wong renders a world where he was always “wandering the edges.”
New gallery tête-à-tête-à-tête proffers an intimate setting for art
Its second show explores the psychoanalytic implications of shadow.
CAConrad’s poems are “breathing wild creatures”
The poet’s work is the first in Bold Type, a new Poetry Foundation design series.
Pokémon Fossil Museum makes its North American debut
Dinosaurs and Pokémon collide at the Field Museum.
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Celebrating the textiles of everyday life
“Side by Side: Color and Textiles” brings Ukrainian identity and diaspora to life.
Desire and refusal
Wrightwood 659’s “Dispossessions in the Americas” features the work of artists shaped by the social and political forces of colonialism.
The unsettling beauty of the life cycle
Chicago-based artist Victor Olaoye paints the never-ending loop of death and rebirth.
‘You don’t want to put your heroes on a pedestal’
Chicago’s Latine arts and organizing community confronts the Cesar Chavez allegations.
Abstraction as investigation
In their joint exhibition, artists Mike Cloud and Nyeema Morgan prompt us to reflect on how narratives are constructed and circulated.
Weaving together past and present
Works by Nordic artist Sofia Hagström Møller light up the Swedish American Museum for its 50th anniversary.
What’s on for spring? Summonings and symbolic systems
This season, exhibitions in Chicago provide canopy cover from the chaos of infinite wars.
Cosmic connections
Artist Natalia Titova draws on her love of literature to create a vast series of digital collages.
Light shift
Matthew Herriot’s recent exhibition at boundary used the presence of light as a key material.
A portrait of Chicago, decades in the making
John A. Knudsen fashioned a visual symphony of simultaneous urban motion.