Top 5 Art Anniversaries School of the Art Institute of Chicago (150th) The Renaissance Society (100th) Arts Club of Chicago (99th) Smart Museum (40th) Loyola University Art Museum (10th) –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Visiting Artist Talks Hito Steyerl Agnès Varda Joan Jonas Jeff Koons Thomas Hirschhorn –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Art Hires Julie Rodrigues Widholm at DePaul Art Museum Omar Khoeleif at the Museum of Contemporary Art Yesomi Umolu at Logan Center Exhibitions Jeffreen Hayes at Threewalls Janet Dees at the Block Museum –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Photography Reviews by the Late Critic Michael Weinstein Zack Whitford at Hilton Asmus Contemporary Susan Burnstine at Berlanga Fine Art Iterations at Alibi Fine Art David Akiba at Alibi Fine Art Field Study at David Weinberg Photography –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Art Exhibitions in Major Venues Archibald Motley at the Chicago Cultural Center Doris Salcedo at the Museum of Contemporary Art Frances Stark at the Art Institute of Chicago The Freedom Principle at the Museum of Contemporary Art Charles Ray at the Art Institute of Chicago –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Art Exhibitions Outside the Loop Barbara Kasten at the Graham Foundation Three the Hard Way at Logan Center Exhibitions Robert Buck at Iceberg Projects Thomas Grünfeld at Corbett vs. Dempsey Dandy Lion at the Museum of Contemporary Photography –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Commercial Gallery Shows Nathaniel Mary Quinn at Rhona Hoffman Mimi Lauter at Shane Campbell Jessica Stockholder at Kavi Gupta John Stezaker at Richard Gray Jillian Mayer at Aspect/Ratio –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Shows Newcity Didn’t Review Civilization and Its Discontents, SAIC Sullivan Galleries Finocchio at The Franklin Wadada Leo Smith at the Renaissance Society Brandon Alvendia at Threewalls Pearly Foam at David Weinberg Photography –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Shows Barely about Art Platforms, Gallery 400 and other venues No Longer Art: Salvage Art Institute, Neubauer Collegium Let Us Celebrate While Youth Lingers and Ideas Flow, The Renaissance Society The Barack Obama Presidential Library, a participatory project by Jorge Lucero North Korean Perspectives, Museum of Contemporary Photography –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 New Art Spaces Efrain Lopez Gallery Patron Gallery ACRE’s new location in Pilsen Hyde Park Art Center’s new Guida Family Creative Wing Corner Gallery in Avondale –Elliot Reichert
Top 5 Best Night Art Crawls MCA Prime Time at the Museum of Contemporary Art After Dark in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago SAIC Graduate Open Studios Night Second Fridays Gallery Night in Pilsen Adler After Dark at the Adler Planetarium –Vasia Rigou
Top 5 Best Places to Take in Some Art From On High EXPO Chicago: Art, the city and the tourist traps on Navy Pier create an idiosyncratic tableau. Museum of Contemporary Art: The cold wombs of the MCA take the gallery experience and blow it up, a magnitude of difference which can stun and frighten both, helpfully mitigated by the glorious grid architecture and design running through the museum. Chicago Cultural Center: Free, expansive and steps off the Magnificent Mile. Have Tiffany cascade down upon you as if you were standing in God’s own foyer. The Cotton Duck: It’s a full-service restaurant, too. The Art Institute of Chicago: Duh. –B. David Zarley
Elliot Josephine Leila Reichert is a curator, critic and editor. She is the inaugural Curator of Contemporary Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University. She was formerly Curatorial Fellow at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Art Editor of Newcity and Assistant Curator at the Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
