SEPTEMBER
“Machinations: Kinetic Sculpture in the Age of Open Source”
Artist Mark Porter curates a group exhibition celebrating the art of invention. New media works are the result of tinkering, hacking, inventing and play by artists including Jeremy Boyle, Anat Pollack and Pencil Studios.
Glass Curtain Gallery, September 6-November 3
Robert Guinan
The Toulouse-Lautrec of contemporary Chicago, Robert Guinan has been sketching the city’s bars, subways, lounges and alleyways for the past fifty years. New works on display.
Ann Nathan Gallery, September 7-October 13
Robert Lostutter
Lostutter, the Chicago Imagist renowned for his watercolors of humans and birds, presents a new exhibition of works on paper entitled “Garden of Opiates.” New work by book designer Walter Hamady accompanies Lostutter’s botanical highs.
Corbett vs. Dempsey, September 7-October 20
Gladys Nilsson
An original “Hairy Who” Imagist, Nilsson has been painting whimsical watercolors for the past fifty years. New works feature the narrative imagery and elongated limbs so common in Nilsson’s previous work.
Jean Albano Gallery, September 7-October 20
Roger Brown
A retrospective of the late Imagist’s major paintings. The exhibition features joint shows at both Russell Bowman and Zolla/Lieberman.
Russell Bowman Art Advisory and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, September 7-October 20
Storm Thorgerson
A co-founder of acclaimed design group Hipgnosis, Thorgerson has created some of the most enduring rock ‘n’ roll images of the past forty years, including covers for Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” and “Dark Side of the Moon.” “Computers Have A Lot To Answer For” presents a forty-year retrospective of his photographic prints, all created in the dark ages before Photoshop existed.
Public Works, September 7-November 2.
Rory Coyne
You can label him an allegorical realist, a figurative realist, a therianthropic mastermind or just a guy who paints people as animals, but Rory Coyne is, undeniably, a master of the mythical. Fittingly, his newest solo show is “Marked by Myth,” an exhibition that features highly realistic oil paintings of decidedly unrealistic subjects.
FM*Gallery, September 14-October 5
“Afterimage”
Curators Thea Liberty Nichols and Dahlia Tulett-Gross highlight the influence of Chicago’s Imagist movement in a new generation of artists. Three complementary exhibitions occur simultaneously at the Roger Brown Study Collection, the Center for Book and Paper Arts and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection.
DePaul Art Museum, September 14-November 18
“Danse Macabre: Death and the Printer”
A late-medieval genre that embraces the universality of death, “Danse Macabre” gets revitalized in this group exhibition of prints created by contemporary Chicago printmakers and curated by Maria Sanchez. On October 6 CPC holds “Woodblock X Woodblock,” an opening reception and hands-on printmaking demonstration.
Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, September 15-November 3
Expo Chicago and Gallery Weekend Chicago
NEXT Art Chicago is gone, but former director Tony Karman has brought a new international art fair to Navy Pier, where versions of its predecessors were held for more than twenty years. If Expo’s hundred-plus galleries aren’t enough for you, check out the citywide events and openings participating in Gallery Weekend Chicago.
Expo Chicago is at Navy Pier, September 20-23; Gallery Weekend Chicago occurs at various locations September 21-23
Allen Ruppersberg
Photographs by conceptual artist Allen Ruppersberg were featured in the Art Institute’s “Light Years” exhibition earlier this year, but now Ruppersberg’s work takes center stage with an audiovisual tribute to American music. “No Time Left to Start Again/The B and D of R ’n’ R” surveys sixty years of folk, gospel, blues and rock with a colorful display of album covers, snapshots and obituaries, with thousands of cataloged songs available for listening and a set of LPs for sale in lieu of a catalog.
Art Institute of Chicago, September 21-January 6
Art on Track
For one night, a six-car CTA train is transformed into the world’s largest mobile art gallery. Art created or curated by CMYKittens, the Chicago Design Museum, T.A.R.T., House of Frog, Noisivelvet and Gallery B1 E.
Select Blue Line stops between Logan Square and UIC-Halsted, September 22
Danh Vo
Vietnamese-born artist Danh Vo draws upon objects that mark the intersection between historic events and individual lives, using pieces like the watch, ring and lighter his father acquired as a refugee in Denmark to consider the way people move across borders. The Renaissance Society features new work by Vo, and is collaborating with the Art Institute to present “We the People,” a fragmented 1:1 recreation of the Statue of Liberty.
Renaissance Society, September 23-December 16; Art Institute of Chicago, September 23-October 28
OCTOBER
“Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints”
The University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art has a couple of Japanese print exhibitions this fall, with the largest, “Awash in Color,” focusing on the links between French and Japanese printmaking. Curators Chelsea Foxwell and Anne Leonard examine printmakers’ use of color, finding complementary techniques and styles across the two traditions.
Smart Museum of Art, October 4-January 20
42nd Annual Pilsen East Artists’ Open House
In its forty-second installment, dozens of galleries along West 18th and South Halsted open their doors to create one of the largest neighborhood art fairs in the city. Participating galleries include HumanThread, Rooms and Black Cloud Gallery.
Chicago Arts District, October 5-7
“Process of Scale”
In conjunction with the International Sculpture Conference on October 4-6, the UIMA’s newest exhibition displays the process of creating large-scale sculptures. Curated by sculptor Terrence Karpowicz, the group exhibition includes pieces that show the development of actual finished pieces from drawings on paper and miniature models.
Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, October 5-December 2
Chris Aque
Sometimes jarring, sometimes silly, the work of University of Chicago-graduate Chris Aque aims for commentary and criticism on the everyday and ordinary. In “Homonyms (for Misfits and Outcasts),” urinal partitions split vision, Abercrombie & Fitch bags are filled to burst and self-identification is made into quite a tricky thing indeed.
Peregrine Program, October 7-November 4
“Locality”
Presented in and outside of CAC’s Fulton Market gallery, “Locality” draws from the West Loop neighborhood’s past and present history to struggle with the push and pull exerted by local boundaries. The group exhibition features pieces made by residents of CAC’s Hatch Project arts incubator.
Chicago Artists’ Coalition, October 12-November 1
Darrell Roberts and Melanie Pankau
Roberts’ colorful oil paintings are thick things of beauty, the paint often laid down in layers and spilling over the canvas’ edge. Architecturally inspired works from Melanie Pankau join his new abstract paintings.
Thomas McCormick Gallery, October 20-December 8
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
The Bouroullec brothers’ first major U.S. exhibition in ten years, “Bivouac” features objects in all stages of production, tracing the brothers’ design process from prototype to finished work. In addition to including everyday objects like chairs and sofas, the exhibition also features pieces the Bouroullec’s call “microarchitecture,” objects larger than furniture but smaller than architecture.
Museum of Contemporary Art, October 20-January 20
Steve McQueen
Aside from directing movies like “Hunger” and “Shame,” Steve McQueen has had a nearly twenty-year career as an artist, creating moving works of video and conceptual art. The first large-scale survey of his work features a number of his video installations in addition to “Queen and Country,” a collection of McQueen-made stamps that bear the portraits of British men and women who died in Iraq.
Art Institute of Chicago, October 21-January 6
MDW Fair
In its second year and third installment, the Bridgeport fair brings together artists, galleries and art initiatives in a global celebration of grassroots arts culture.
Geolofts, October 26-28.
NOVEMBER
SOFA Chicago 2012
In its nineteenth year, the annual exposition of sculpture, objects and functional art has embraced a partnership with local outsider art organization Intuit to include self-taught art and artists under the general “SOFA Chicago” umbrella. The fair includes a number of lectures and special events, in addition to featuring galleries from around the world.
Navy Pier, November 2-4.
Diana Guerrero-Maciá and Jessie Mott
Working with text and images in a variety of mediums, Guerrero-Maciá’s work is frequently aphoristic and often humorous (a piece called “Radiohead” features the words “Broad, Looming & Non-Specific”). New works are paired with pieces by Jessie Mott, a writer and artist who typically uses animals as subject matter.
Threewalls, November 2-December 15.
“What I Was Thinking: 25 Year Anniversary”
Edelman celebrates its twenty-fifth with a photography exhibition that stretches all the way back to the River North gallery’s first show, Nan Goldin’s “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.”
Catherine Edelman Gallery, November 2-December 29.
Luis Gonzalez Palma
Palma’s sepia-toned photographs focus on the poverty of indigenous peoples in his native Guatemala. His portraits are stark, though his work has garnered some criticism for allegedly exploiting his subjects’ plight.
Schneider Gallery, November 2-December 29
Mike Nudelman
Mike Nudelman has made the ballpoint pen his own. His hazy drawings of supernatural occurrences and lunar landscapes are, according to his website, “more or less about the Singularity,” but that description undercuts what is clearly a powerful sense of wonder and an absurd sense of humor.
Thomas Robertello Gallery, November 9-December 29
Jeffrey Forsythe
Appropriate to his name, Forsythe’s three-dimensional work has included a gold-leaf buzz saw, meat grinder and chain saw. While sometimes these pieces seem like overkill, Forsythe’s prints and paintings reveal a wonderful sense of humor and an eye for color that looks heavily influenced by Japanese print art.
Perimeter Gallery, November 16-December 29
“Epic Something”
The final installment of the roving Twelve Galleries Project, “Epic Something” celebrates the union of text and image with a group exhibition featuring Lilli Carré, Edie Fake and Heather Mekkelson, among others.
Hyde Park Art Center, November 18-February 24
Photo credits: Stephen Cartwright, “Deviation”; Glass Curtain Gallery (“Machinations”). Robert Guinan, “Christmas Eve”; Ann Nathan Gallery. Robert Lostutter, “Garden of Opiates 2”; Corbett vs. Dempsey. Gladys Nilsson, “A Waited Table”; Jean Albano Gallery. Roger Brown, “Rising Above It All”; Zolla/Lieberman Gallery. Storm Thorgerson, “Wish You Were Here”; Public Works. Rory Coyne; FM*Gallery. Rebecca Shore, “09”; collection of Emmy Kondo and Daniel Rosenthal, DePaul Art Museum (“Afterimage”). Artemio Rodriguez, “Juan Pablos, First Printer of the Americas”; Chicago Printmakers Collaborative (“Danse Macabre”). Expo Chicago model; Studio Gang. Allen Ruppersberg, “No Time Left To Start Again/ The B and D of R ‘n’ R” (detail); the artist and Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles. Art on Track 2011; Art on Track. Danh Vo, “We the People” (detail); Nils Klinger. Henri Rivière, “Vegetable Garden at Ville-Hue (Saint-Briac)”; Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago. Pilsen East Artists’ Open House (2011); Chicago Arts District. Eric Gushee, “Untitled”; Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (“Process of Scale”). Chris Aque, “Rock”; Peregrine Program. Alexandra Lee (ATYL), “9h25 On the Way”; Chicago Artists’ Coalition (“Locality”). Darrell Roberts, “Zinnia”; Thomas McCormick Gallery. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, “Bivouac” (installation view); Studio Bouroullec. Steve McQueen, “Charlotte”; the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris. SOFA Chicago (2011); Cheri Eisenberg. Diana Guerrero-Maciá, “The Unfolding of Miscalculations”; Tom Van Eynde. Nan Goldin, “J. and C.Z. in the car, New York City, 1984”; Catherine Edelman Gallery Chicago (“What I Was Thinking”). Luis Gonzalez Palma, “Perdida en su pensamiento”; Schneider Gallery. Mike Nudelman, “Detached Observers (Stereoscopic Drawing)”; Thomas Robertello Gallery. Jeffrey Forsythe, “If I Had Known Now What I Had Known Then”; Perimeter Gallery. Viktor Van Bramer, “Xccult of the pale watcher:article 001:currently unknown deity”; the artist and Hyde Park Art Center (“Epic Something”).
—Harrison Smith
