5 Chicago Art Exhibitions Worth Battling The Cold To See
By Carrie McGath in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 22, 2016 5:12PM
Just like the toughest Chicagoans, the city's cultural landscape doesn’t hide from the cold either. Through the rest of December and into the new year, there are multiple captivating exhibitions to see at museums throughout the city. Diverse, probing and intensely inspiring, these shows and cultural institutions are a unique way to entertain visitors in town for the holiday season while showing off the city’s deep cultural veins.
1. Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA): Riot Grrls just opened on Dec. 15 and features an array of artwork from the MCA’s collection. Part of a series featuring work from their expansive collection, Riot Grrls successfully showcases work that comments on the ongoing matter of the incestuous boys’ club still present within the art world. Charline von Heyl, Joyce Pensato, Jackie Saccoccio and Judy Ledgerwood are among the eight featured female artists in this robustly curated show, which is named after the feminist hardcore movement of the '90s.
While at the MCA, be sure to also visit the Basim Magdy exhibition, The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings. Magdy's unique “pickling” process give his work a dreamy slumber quality while commenting on the impossibility of paradise. This is the Egyptian artist’s first exhibition in the United States and includes an artist book and a commissioned work especially for the MCA.
2. Art Institute of Chicago: The internationally-recognized museum is known for large-scale exhibitions like Van Gogh’s Bedrooms and 2015’s Charles Ray: Sculpture, 1997-2014, but the museum’s smaller galleries also boast eclectic and deftly-curated shows. The Prints and Drawings gallery is celebrating 25 years of acquisitions with Master Drawings Unveiled, showcasing work from the 17th century into the mid-20th century across a spectrum of styles and movements. Grant Wood, Edgar Degas and Henri Fantin-Latour are among some of the artists included, creating an encyclopedic and engaging display of some of the most significant works in their collection. A truly warming exhibition is the Department of Textiles’ Modern Velvet: A Sense of Luxury in the Age of Industry. The works throughout the galleries have an incredible depth and the stellar curation gives visitors a context of the history in the production of velvet and its place in design and fashion in the modern age.
3. Smart Museum of Art: A bold installation by Jessica Stockholder greets visitors to the University of Chicago campus museum. Rose’s Inclination cuts through the space, interacting with everything in its path, including the architecture of the building and the courtyard. Part of the “Conversations with the Collection” series is Belonging, an exhibit showcasing works spanning eras, genres and cultures. Built on the theme of “belonging,” the result is a show that will delight and inform visitors about all manners of art, from Rococo paintings to modern furniture.
4. Alphawood: Art AIDS America has landed in Chicago in a former bank space on Halsted Street and Fullerton Avenue in Lincoln Park. The space was custom-made for this pivotal exhibition marking a diverse array of work by artists commenting on the AIDS epidemic. Showcasing work by Roger Brown, Keith Haring, Judy Chicago and Barbara Kruger, the show brings rarely-seen works in a fascinating and wholly moving context, superbly curated.
5. Chicago Cultural Center: Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis exhibits 60 paintings by this significant figure in Abstract Expressionism in America. Part of the Harlem art community, his politically-charged paintings that point to major moments in civil rights. The survey spans work from the 1930s through the 1970s, giving visitors a far-reaching and moving portrait of Lewis' work.