Café Society, located in the Historic Prairie District's National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, is quickly finding itself to be an unwelcome tenant. The museum's board of directors served owner Jorge Armando "Chef George" Anafador an eviction notice last year, allegedly for being habitually late with the rent - and who hasn't? This prompted Anafador, whose lease on the café runs through 2013, to file a lawsuit fighting the eviction notice. Anafador's lawsuit throws a wrench... more ›

Our weekend visit to Intuit’s quirky outsider art gallery sure was fun. Maybe not Academy Awards fun or drunken Milwaukee Art Museum party fun, but we did enjoy old timey photos of strangers made ghostly by double exposures and other such manipulation. Sixty-five of these photos comprise Intuit’s “Accidental Mysteries” exhibit, a peek into the John and Teenuh Foster collection of ‘vernacular photography.’ These found snapshots by anonymous photographers of unknown subjects range from... more ›

Hurricanes be damned, the spirit of Mardi Gras is alive and well in New Orleans. This weekend, give it up Chicago style with several fundraising events happening around the city. more ›

Five months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the future of New Orleans remains mired in doubt and bureaucracy. When the mainstream media shelves substantive debate over the city’s rebuilding to decipher Mayor Nagin’s “Chocolate City” speech, the art world picks up the slack. Two local exhibits and a new play examine The Big Easy, the city and the idea. more ›

Labor Day is traditionally the symbolic end of summer in Chicago, but for the local art scene it marks a major transition. Chicagoist missed a rash of summer exhibition closings last weekend but, as much as we procrastinate, don’t plan to make the same mistake this weekend. Schneider Gallery’s Portrait closes Saturday. The exhibit brings together seven photographers who capture their subjects unconventionally but in deeply affecting and sometimes freaky ways. Down the block, Saslow... more ›

Chicago's unfortunate architectural lull, which bored us all into oblivion with a spate of new, lifeless residential highrises during the late '90s, finally seems to be coming to an end. First we got our Frank Gehry bandshell and our Rem Koolhaas campus center, and now this: it looks like superstar Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava may be bringing his genius to a residential development on North Lake Shore Drive. more ›

Memorial Day is a time to honor our vetrans, those who have died defending out country, and the men and women who are currently serving in the military. But let's face it - to many of us Memorial Day is a time to make merry because we have an extra day off of work! Whether you celebrate it patriotically or not, Chicago has a million things going on this weekend. Chicagoist tried to round them all up, but feel free to comment if we missed any! more ›