Dmitry Samarov is turning to Kickstarter to drum up the funds so he can hire an agent and take some time off from behind the wheel to edit a manuscript. To sweeten the campaign, Samarov is offering original artwork from the new book to pledges of $75. more ›

Send in your encased-meat related artistic endeavors - you might just get published. more ›

David Leggett's creations are packed with pop culture nostalgia, raunchy humor, wry social commentary, and many, many penises. We sat down with the Chicago-based artist, whose next show opens May 12 at HINGE Gallery. more ›

The Empty Bottle and Ad Hoc are teaming up to present Banter, a new series that celebrates experimental music and intelligent discourse by mingling art, informative presentations, live music and, of course, dancing. more ›

I CAN DO THAT doesn’t just break the no-touching rule found at most exhibits, it also gives you the supplies to improve, recreate or completely transform the artwork on display. more ›

(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. In this week's look at his archives, Art reflects on his friendship with the legendary mime, Marcel Marceau.) more ›

In the second of two interviews on the subject of animated GIFs, we talk with local artists who are producing a 16mm film composed entirely of animated GIFs, twohundredfiftysixcolors. more ›

Jeremy Scheuch has come up with yet another design suitable for ironing onto a t-shirt. Do it! more ›

In the first of two parts, we spoke with GIF enthusiasts Christopher Smith and Jake Myers of TAGTEAM about their upcoming March 20 show with twohundredfiftysixcolors at the Museum of Contemporary Art. more ›

Zachary Schomburg's poetry utilizes surreal landscape and commonplace objects to evaluate struggles in everyday life. Schomburg will read at the Poetry Foundation headquarters next week in a multi-disciplinary show. more ›

Dwight Cleveland has 25,000 movie posters, and has spent 35 years of his life amassing them. more ›

It's once again time to vote for next year's city vehicle sticker. These ten finalists were chosen from over 240 entries and the one with the most votes will be featured on over 1.3 million stickers. more ›

SmallBar celebrates all things rye tonight. A Pilsen art collective hosts a sale to raise funds for a Miami exhibition. Five-Star Bar goes Yacht Rock tomorrow. more ›

(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. In this week's look at his photography archives, Art explains how he spent a lifetime trying to avoid taking stock photography.) more ›

The recovering groupie, artist and plaster penis aficionado also has been working on her memoirs, off and on, for the past 20 years. now, she's turning to Kickstarter to raise the money she needs to cover her expenses while she finishes her memoirs. more ›

Last weekend the 2011 Sculpture Objects & Functional Art (SOFA) Chicago exposition took place at Navy Pier's Festival Hall. Running concurrently in the same space was the Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art. more ›

It's Friday and we know none of you are really into thinking too hard right now (and that you're probably looking forward to an extended liquid lunch) so let's keep things breezy here. This week we're kind of into maps and artistic representations of where we're from. We're self-centered like that! Let's enjoy some art, shall we? more ›

It surprised us to learn that only two years after Richard Warren Sears moved to Chicago and joined forces with Alvah C. Roebuck, their catalog featured fine art. Perhaps the oil paintings for sale in that 1895 catalog weren't what the Sears Catalog ended up being known for (we still remember it primarily as a compendium of fantasies about what Santa might, in our wildest dreams, bring us). The point is that it would not have been surprising when, in 1962, Sears asked someone to curate and acquire a 2,700-piece art collection to be merchandised nationwide, with costs as low as $5 down and $5 per month. It does seem surprising, to many of us today, who they chose to head it up: Vincent Price. more ›

Custom House Tavern turns six with an open house Thursday. more ›

Columbia College Recycling Program hosted an on-campus event yesterday called “Screenprinting a Smaller Carbon Footprint.” more ›

Claire Zulkey's "Funny Ha-Ha" at Hideout tonight is loaded with local literary luminaries who host their own shows around town. more ›

For many Chicagoans, most of what they've seen of Dmitry Samarov is from the back seat of his Scion cab, or what they've gleaned from his observations of the city via his paintings and pencil drawings. Now that University of Chicago Press has released Samarov's first book, Hack: Stories From a Chicago Cab, the artist, writer and cab driver is showing up everywhere, from the pages of The Trib to Bob Edward's Talk of the Nation to an art show at Saki Records with musician Chris Brokaw (see the info for tonight's opening reception of "Music and Baseball" at the end of the interview). more ›

The notion that graffiti is an artistic expression has remained largely underground, but in the social media age where access to people with similar interests is readily available, this has started to change. more ›

Anyone who has ever seen Andrew Bird in concert will recognize the captivating, rotating Specimen horn speakers that have become his signature. This December, the Museum of Contemporary Art will have an entire installation of them—70 to be exact—in their atrium with a score composed by, who else, Bird himself, creating an experience that appeals to the eyes as well as the ears. Better yet, Bird will perform live on December 21 and 22 with the “forest” of horns serving as his PA. more ›

Tomorrow, University of Chicago Press is publishing Dmitry Samarov's "Hack: Stories From A Chicago Cab." more ›

We thought there was an awful lot going on at the grand opening of the Southside Hub of Production (SHoP), a brand-new cultural center in Hyde Park, until we saw that the space the organization will be occupying was the Fenn House, a 16-room Victorian mansion across the street from the University of Chicago Campus. With that kind of square footage, there is room to offer something for everybody, which is what SHoP is aiming to do--and from a decidedly local perspective. more ›

It may be the only exclusive comic Ware draws for an iPad. more ›

The Marina Towers have become an iconic image on the skyline of Chicago with their unique corncob architecture. Their distinctive look makes them an easily recognizable landmark that has appeared in many Hollywood films (including the memorable scene in the Steve McQueen film The Hunter where a car plummets from the parking garage into the river) and more recently graced the album cover of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. But, as much as we admire the exterior and associate it with our city, what goes on inside? Who lives there? more ›

Pork, booze, and record bins. These are a few of our favorite things. The folks from Schubas are bringing all three together at their first annual Pig, Swig and Record Dig. more ›

A free screening of The Goonies kicks off today's listings. more ›