Ruth Duckworth: Life as a Unity Smart Museum September 21-February 4 The first monographic museum exhibition of the late Chicago artist’s work in nearly twenty years (and first since her death in 2009), reframes the ceramicist’s oeuvre in her preferred term as sculpture and considers it in the context of the then-nascent environmental movement. In addition to the nearly sixty objects in the show, some of which have never been publicly exhibited, the nearby Regenstein Library will showcase its new gift, the monumental 240-square-foot, 1976 ceramic-slab wall sculpture, “Clouds Over Lake Michigan.”
Candace Hunter: The Alien-Nation and Sovereign States of Octavia E. Butler Hyde Park Art Center November 11-March 3 In the largest solo exhibition to date of Chicago artist Candace Hunter, she visits the work of speculative fiction author Octavia E. Butler for the third time. Exploring themes related to nationhood in this moment of the rise of both Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter movement, “Hunter incorporates work with plants, remnants of a live science experiment, a reading nook, and imagined portals to other worlds to create what she describes as an ‘alien lush space.’”
Faith Ringgold: American People Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago November 18-February 24 The first Chicago retrospective of the ninety-two-year-old New York-area artist features an array of her most well-known works—her quilts, along with paintings, sculptures and even performances. She’s an activist, too, and the show will explore her six-decade career through the evolution of politics, race and gender issues in her time.
