Enjoy a nice review by Liz Armstrong for Ready Made Magazine about a few things that happened so far at Version Festival 11: The Community.

April 30, 2011
4 W Burton Pl, Chicago, IL 60610
Performance: 30 April 2011, 8:00pm

Interested in notions of surprise and abrupt change in sound, Florian Hecker will perform Speculative Solution for the first time in the U.S. on April 30, 2011. Speculative Solution is a series of “micro-chronics” or auditory sequences that range from extreme stasis to the [...]

April 30, 2011
1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Auction/Party: 30 April 2011, 8:00pm—12:00am
Cost: $30 ($25 in advance)

Aw snap, the best party of the art fair weekend returns again!

Come kick off our 5th Anniversary Year, we are doing it in style!

Bigger and better than ever this year we are featuring our famous snack attack, full bar, and Chi-town’s [...]

April 30, 2011
128 N Campbell Ave, G, Chicago, IL 60612
Reception: 30 April 2011, 7:00pm—11:00pm
On View: 30 April 2011—14 May 2011

A group exhibition of new paintings by Matias Arganaraz, Dick Cowan and Austin Eddy.

The exhibition features new paintings and collaborative works that engage the historical trope of nude figure painting.

April 30, 2011
119 N Peoria St, 2C, Chicago, IL 60607
Release Party: 30 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm

Community-Supported Art Chicago is a yearly art subscription service of locally produced art. Much like Community Supported Agriculture, in which shareholders invest in a local farm and receive a monthly payout of fruits and vegetables, CSA Chicago asks shareholders to [...]

April 30, 2011
2153 W 21st St, Chicago, IL, 60608
Reception: 30 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 30 April 2011—28 May 2011

Part of our American legacy is the truism that there are two sides to every story. Some illuminated soul claimed the third side: your way, my way, and the Truth. Became lyrics to a bunch of songs [...]

April 30, 2011
1254 N Noble St, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 30 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

Reentry Issues: Seashells and Superstition speaks of the phenomenon of leaving an island for the mainland. Elspeth Vance and Myranda Gillies present a collection of objects pulled from the hypnagogic in-between: the state between youth and death, gas and liquid, sea [...]

April 29, 2011
33 S State St, 7, Chicago, IL 60603
Reception: 29 April 2011, 8:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 30 April 2011—20 May 2011

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) proudly presents the annual year-end Graduate Thesis Exhibition opening Saturday, April 30 and running through Friday, May 20 at SAIC’s critically acclaimed Sullivan Galleries (33 S. [...]

April 29, 2011
418 N Clark St, 2, Chicago, IL 60654
Party/Reception: 29 April 2011, 7:00pm—12:00am

A group painting show + poster release party.

Featuring Yoon Jae Barng, Claire Berenblum, Paul Dressen, Travis Fish, Bess Mcneill, Dhehee Lee, Nicole Mazza, Sunhwa PArk, Yangbin Park, Daniel Rizzo-Orr, Laura Rodriguez, Minji Sohn, Kevin Stuart and Brian Wadford.

A special unveiling of [...]

May 1, 2011
125 N Harvey Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302
Reception: 1 May 2011, 2:00pm—4:00pm
On View: 1 May 2011—10 July 2011

Work by Zak Kitnick and Valerie Snobeck.

Curated by Maxwell Graham.

May 1, 2011
125 N Harvey Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302
Reception: 1 May 2011, 2:00pm—4:00pm

Work by Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Ruby Sky Stiler.

In the house: Two Fold by Colleen Asper and Ethan Greenbaum. Work by Christopher Aque, Beth Asper, Lauren Beck, Stephanie Brooks, Julia Fish, Joanne Greenbaum, Samara Golden, Nate Heiges, Bill Jenkins, Judy Ledgerwood, [...]

May 1, 2011
244 W 31st St, Chicago, IL 60616
Reception: 1 May 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm

Things That Are Longing To Appear is a storefront installation/window display by artist Bill Talsma that consists of six modified “open & closed” signs presented at 244 W. 31st Street in Chicago. These signs—the kind usually displayed at small businesses—have been [...]

May 6, 2011
5228 S Harper Ave, Chicago, IL 60615
Reception: 6 May 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 4 May 2011—7 May 2011

Work by Gabrielle Garland.

May 6, 2011
1561 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 6 May 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 6 May 2011—TBA

Work by Michael Sirianni.

May 7, 2011
220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Exhibition: 7 May 2011
On View: 7 May 2011—29 May 2011

In Matthew Metzger’s UBS 12 x 12 show Nocturne, two paintings-one depicting the cover of 1980s R&B group Surface’s self-titled debut album, and the other a rubber band lying coiled on a bare panel-frame a set of [...]

May 7, 2011
1120 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 7 May 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 6 May 2011—2 July 2011

New works on paper.

H.C. Westermann in the East Wing.

May 7, 2011
1452 N Milwaukee Ave, 3, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 7 May 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 7 May 2011—11 June 2011

A collaborative exhibition featuring Carson Fisk-Vittori, Derek Frech, Justin Kemp, Joe Lacina, Joshua Pavlacky and Daniel Wallace.

Fruits of a connected and continuous collaborative consciousness, A rod stewart little richard prince charles manson family is [...]

May 7, 2011
2007 N Point St, Chicago, IL 60647
Reception: 7 May 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 7 May 2011—22 May 2011

IF OUR WORLD PROTECTS is the first solo show for duo Lenox-Lenox.

May 7, 2011
1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Screening: 7 May 2011, 7:00pm
Cost: TBA

Screening of new works by Chicago artist Andy Roche, including his four collaborative films with David Price (originally exhibited at Saturday Cinema in 2010), videos made for Andy’s band Black Vatican, and premieres of several unseen works.

The screening includes the release [...]

May 8, 2011
3144 W Carroll Ave, 2G, Chicago, IL, 60612
Reception: 8 May 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 8 May 2011—29 May 2011

Work by Frank Piatek.

May 11, 2011
Kersten Physics Teaching Center, Room 120 @ 5720 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
Artist Talk: 11 May 2011, 5:00pm

Ute Meta Bauer is an associate professor and the director of the recently established Program in Art, Culture, and Technology at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, where she served as director of the MIT [...]

May 12, 2011
Price Auditorium @ 111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Artist Talk: 12 May 2011, 6:00pm—7:30pm
Cost: $20 ($15 members)

Paul McCarthy uses provocative and often satirically violent imagery to parody archetypal subjects in irreverent performance-based multimedia work. He explains, “My work seems to be about tearing down and opening up conventions.” During the 1970s, [...]

May 13, 2011
1765 S Laflin St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 13 May 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 13 May 2011—11 June 2011

Work by Adam Trowbridge and Jessica Westbrook.

May 13, 2011 11:00 pm
673 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 13 May 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 13 May 2011—25 June 2011

Work by Mark Grotjahn.

May 13, 2011 11:00 pm
5228 S Harper Ave, Chicago, IL 60615
Reception: 13 May 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 11 May 2011—14 May 2011

Work by Jacqueline Hendrickson.

May 13, 2011 11:00 pm
1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 13 May 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 13 May 2011—11 June 2011

Work by Frank Heath and Brendan Meara.

May 13, 2011 11:00 pm
3219 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 13 May 2011, 7:00pm—2:00am
On View: 13 May 2011—10 June 2011

An art show celebrating Mexican Ranch culture, as seen through the life of the Gonzalez Family. Although the family primarily lives in urban Chicago, they maintain a tight-knit community on their rural Indiana ranch. On display [...]

May 13, 2011 11:00 pm
1550 N Milwaukee Ave #2, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 13 May 2011, 7:00pm—11:00pm
On View: 6 May 2011—28 May 2011

Work by Joseph Patrick Mault, Patrick Francis McGuan and Charles Thomas Fogarty.

Guest curated by Max Reinhardt.

May 13, 2011 11:00 pm
1822 S Desplaines St, Chicago, IL 60616
Reception: 13 May 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 13 May 2011—TBA

Work by Claire Arctander.

May 14, 2011 11:00 pm
111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Exhibition: 14 May 2011
On View: 14 May 2011—14 September 2011

Since the early 1990s, Los Angeles–based artist Uta Barth has examined photographic and visual perception—how the human eye sees differently from the camera lens and how the incidental and atmospheric can become subject matter in and of themselves. [...]

May 14, 2011 11:00 pm
111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Artist Talk: 14 May 2011, 12:00pm—1:00pm

Photographer Uta Barth provides an overview of her career, from her early work to her most recent series, …and to draw a bright white line with light, debuting the same day in the Modern Wing.

May 14, 2011 11:00 pm
1254 N Noble St, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 14 May 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

Details TBA.

May 15, 2011 11:00 pm
5811 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
Reception: 15 May 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 15 May 2011—26 June 2011

Chicago artist William J. O’Brien (b. 1975) works in multiple mediums, including ceramic, textiles, wood, and metal, along with works on paper. His corpus reflects a playful attention to the expected properties of each material, and [...]

May 15, 2011 11:00 pm
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 15 May 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm
Work by Lydia McCarthy.

May 20, 2011 11:00 pm
118 N Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Exhibition: 20 May 2011
On View: 20 May 2011—8 July 2011

Curated by Terry R. Myers.

Work by André Butzer, Folkert de Jong, Lari Pittman, Rona Pondick, Jeni Spota, Nicola Tyson and John Wesley.

May 20, 2011 11:00 pm
119 N Peoria St, 2A, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 20 May 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 20 May 2011—2 July 2011

Work by Rachel Niffenegger and Paul Nudd.

Band of Bikers in Gallery 2. Organized by Scott Zieher.

May 20, 2011 11:00 pm
213 N Morgan St, 3C, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 20 May 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 20 May 2011—25 June 2011
Work by Mark Mulroney.

May 20, 2011 11:00 pm
1369 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 20 May 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 25 June 2011—7 May 2011

Work by Jasmine Justice.

May 21, 2011 11:00 pm
835 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 21 May 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 21 May 2011—2 July 2011

Work by Greg Stimac.

May 21, 2011 11:00 pm
2154 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 21 May 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 21 May 2011—31 July 2011
Work by Kendell Carter.

May 21, 2011 11:00 pm
7714 N Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60626
Reception: 21 May 2011, TBA—TBA
On View: 21 May 2011—TBA
Work by Gregg Bordowitz.

May 21, 2011 11:00 pm
350 N Ogden Ave, 4E, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 21 May 2011, TBA—TBA
On View: 21 May 2011—27 June 2011

Work by Thomas Roach.

May 21, 2011 11:00 pm
2332 W Augusta Blvd, 3F, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 21 May 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm

Work by Brandon Heuser, Kristen Romaniszak, Catie Olson and EC Brown.

May 21, 2011 11:00 pm
128 N Campbell Ave, G, Chicago, IL 60612
Reception: 21 May 2011, 8:00pm—11:00pm

Work by Brandon Anschultz and Adam Farcus.

May 22, 2011 11:00 pm
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 22 May 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm

Work by Jessye McDowell.

May 27, 2011
27 N Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 27 May 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 27 May 2011—13 August 2011

Work by Patrick Berran.

May 28, 2011
220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Exhibition: 28 May 2011
On View: 28 May 2011—18 September 2011

This exhibition is the first survey of the artist’s work to date. Spanning the years 1996 to 2010, it examines Bradford‘s work in all media, beginning with early sculptural projects, and culminating in a number of new commissions. [...]

May 28, 2011
6932 N Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60626
Reception: 28 May 2011, TBA—TBA

Work by Marian Glebes.

May 29, 2011
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 29 May 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm

Work by Scott Whipkey.

Opening Of Version Festival
New New Chicagoans Group Show
@ Co-Prosperity Sphere (3219 S Morgan Street)
www.coprosperity.org
7pm-1am – exhibition runs through May 7, 2011
Admission: Free (After 9pm $5)

The New New Chicagoans
In 2005 Public Media Institute put together the New Chicagoans exhibition. The show was curated on the premise of exhibiting the work from an emerging generation of accomplished [...]

As most of us are already very much aware, the Chicago art community is chiefly composed of art school alumni from some of the very major institutions housed around the city. The art circuit here is a tightly knit scene, and provides the perfect outlet for a variety of alternative spaces and commercial galleries, which [...]

As most of us are already very much aware, the Chicago art community is chiefly composed of art school alumni from some of the very major institutions housed around the city. The art circuit here is a tightly knit scene, and provides the perfect outlet for a variety of alternative spaces and commercial galleries, which are often initiated by grads from some of the many art institutions, which are both teaching and providing prospective exhibitions to Chicago’s emerging artists. Among the most influential of the opportunities these institutions offer are the ever-important MFA Thesis exhibitions, whose buzz can usually be heard around this time of year. Come April and May, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College’s Interdisciplinary Arts Department, the University of Chicago’s MFA program in Studio Arts, as well as Northwestern University’s Art Theory & Practice program, are all exhibiting their MFA thesis grads, manifesting in a multitude of artistic practices spanning across Chicago.

The Dorchester Project makes headlines in the NYT > >

April 15, 2011
4 W Burton Pl, Chicago, IL 60610
Reception: 15 April 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 15 April 2011—18 June 2011

Anne Tyng (b. 1920 Jiangxi, China; lives San Francisco) was among the first women to receive a Masters of Architecture from Harvard University. Starting in 1947, she worked closely with Louis I. Kahn and was instrumental [...]

April 16, 2011
1254 N Noble St, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 16 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

Through curating, design and storytelling, Garage Spaces is an installation that replicates what is found in our everyday lives and immerses the viewer in it. As well, Garage Spaces is as a place for artists to create and to share their work within [...]

April 16, 2011
3219 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 16 April 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 15 April 2011—16 April 2011

Group Hug brings together a number of ACRE residents and staff working primarily with large sculptures. Each of these artists addresses an awareness of the body and human scale while striking careful and nuanced stances with [...]

April 17, 2011
1807 S Allport St, Chicago, IL 60608
Screening: 17 April 2011, 7:30pm—10:30pm
Cost: $5 suggested donation

In honor of its eccentric orbit, its 176-day day, its large iron core, its tidal bulges and Beethoven Crater and its “gently rolling, hilly plains”, your navigators at SPACE PROGRAM hereby propose an audiovisual third fly-by of the smallest [...]

April 22, 2011
1431 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Exhibition: 22 April 2011
On View: 22 April 2011—17 June 2011

A two-person exhibition of drawings and works on paper by Gertrud Goldschmidt (Gego) & Gerd Leufert. This will be the first Chicago exhibition dedicated to the work of Gego (1912-1994) and Leufert (1914-1998), two artists who have [...]

April 24, 2011
1807 S Allport St, Chicago, IL 60608
Screening: 24 April 2011, 7:30pm—10:30pm
Cost: $5 suggested donation

Details TBA.

April 30, 2011
835 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 30 April 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 30 April 2011—18 June 2011

Work by Theaster Gates.

Op Shop IV: Spotlight on Urban AgriCULTURE
1001 E. 53rd Street, Hyde Park

Friday April 8th

“You Grew It, Now What?”
Preparing meals with garden fresh goodness with Chef Donna Binbek
6:00 – 8:00 pm

Chef Donna Binbek, proprietor Simply Food Chicago Personal Chef and Catering located here in Hyde Park, welcomes you and your family and friends to come out [...]

April 8, 2011
1550 N Milwaukee Ave #2, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 8 April 2011, 7:00pm—11:00pm

Featuring the work of Tim Louis Graham, Diego Leclery, Brian McNearney and Matt Sauermilch.

In order to feel the passage of time we reach out with the unsure hands of a sleepwalker, grasping for the familiar, to validate what we think we know. [...]

April 10, 2011
4223 W Lake St, 422, Chicago, IL 60624
Reception: 10 April 2011, 3:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 10 April 2011—15 May 2011

Mark Booth’s practice incorporates sound, writing, painting, drawing, performance, and installation. Much of his work employs fragments of speech, urging viewers to listen, regardless of whether the work is spoken or written.

In GOD IS REPRESENTED [...]

April 10, 2011
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 10 April 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm
Work by Zachary Allen.

April 15, 2011
3219 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 15 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm
On View: TBA—TBA

Work by Daniel Baird, Paul Erschen, Matthew Nichols, Betsy Odom and Aay Preston-Myint.

April 15, 2011
3710 N Marshfield Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
Reception: 15 April 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 15 April 2011—1 May 2011

Work by Joe Mault.

Work by Diego Leclery and You-Ni Chae in the Bathroom Project Space.

April 16, 2011
2655 W Homer St, Chicago, IL 60647
Reception: 16 April 2011, 7:00pm—11:00pm
On View: 16 April 2011—10 May 2011

The photographs made by Mac Katter, Olivia Swider, Hani Eid, and Billy Buck explore an obsession with transforming everyday experiences, the aggressive re-contextualization of found imagery and objects, and both the submission to and overruling of [...]

April 17, 2011
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 17 April 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm

Work by Ben Bigelow and Maxfield Hegedus.

April 19, 2011
400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Talk: 19 April 2011, 6:00pm

Leberecht Migge was arguably the most important landscape architect for German modernism of the Weimar era. The fact that he is relatively unknown outside of German landscape architecture history is not the focus of this paper, but rather, the problem of placing [...]

April 22, 2011
3219 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 22 April 2011, TBA—TBA
On View: 22 April 2011—7 May 2011

In 2005, Public Media Institute put together the New Chicagoans exhibition. The show was curated on the premise of exhibiting the work from an emerging generation of accomplished visual artists in Chicago. This year we have chosen [...]

April 22, 2011
1822 S Desplaines St, Chicago, IL 60616
Reception: 22 April 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: TBA—TBA

Work by Kevin Malella.

April 26, 2011
119 N Peoria St, 2C, Chicago, IL 60607
Panel: 26 April 2011, 7:00pm

Almost paradoxically, the blending together of roles in the art world has accompanied the specialization of arts-related careers. As the last gathering in the @work SALON series, we will wrap up with a look at that always hard-to-define role, the arts [...]

April 24, 2011
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 24 April 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm

Work by Lauren Beck and Sophia Dixon.

April 30, 2011
1622 S Allport St #1, Chicago, IL 60608
Performance: 30 April 2011, 8:00pm—11:00pm

EAR EATER is a semi-monthly curated reading and performance series held at the apartment of Sara Drake and Cassandra Troyan in Pilsen, Chicago called PARASITE LOST.

This session is based on the use of abstraction in language, and how the desire to [...]

April 8, 2011
1561 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 8 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 6 April 2011—8 April 2011

A Variety of Fits is an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Adam Grossi. Grossi’s work is a soft, fleshy underbelly to normative culture’s rational exoskeleton. Through the prisms of mundane objects—piles of t-shirts, rolling [...]

April 8, 2011
213 N Morgan St, 3C, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 8 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 8 April 2011—14 May 2011

Working in photography, sculpture and installation, Norton reorients traditional methods by incorporating new processes and materials, such as live plants, layered wax and other objects. Interested in the nature of visual perception and the trailing legacies [...]

April 11, 2011
Room 157 @ 5550 S Greenwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
Artist Talk: 11 April 2011, 6:00pm—7:00pm

Tamy Ben-Tor (born in 1975, Jerusalem) is one of a number of prominent female artists inventing characters and playing them herself, her work combines performance with photography and/or video. Prominent in this important lineage of artists are Claude [...]

April 21, 2011
201 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611
Exhibition: 21 April 2011
On View: 21 April 2011—29 July 2011

This is the first time a single installation of a large number of the panels from Shadows has been exhibited in Chicago. Shadows was acquired by the Dia Art Foundation from the artist during its inaugural exhibition at the [...]

April 29, 2011
Swift 310 @ 1100 E 57th St, Chicago, IL 60637
Symposium: 29 April 2011, 4:30pm
On View: 29 April 2011—30 April 2011

25 years after the publication of Arjun Appadurai’s The Social Life of Things (SLOT) this conference seeks to assess the enormous role the volume has played in catalyzing and shaping scholarly interest in things. In [...]

April 4, 2011
625 N Kingsbury St, Chicago, IL 60654
Artist Talk: 4 April 2011, 6:00pm

If pressed to describe Theaster Gates‘ work in one word, it would be “transformative.” In his performances, installations, and urban interventions, Gates-an artist, musician, and cultural planner, as well as director of arts program development for the University of Chicago-transforms [...]

April 3, 2011
1913 W 17th St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 3 April 2011, 4:00pm—8:00pm

As an artist I essay to make contact with the unbygone sublime, the unbygone numinous, the unbygone mysterium tremendum. This is especially urgent now in an era of shallow cleverness, scientism, blind “progress,” wing-clipping hyper-reason, dogmatic secularity, and earth-alienation. To put [...]

April 3, 2011
3144 W Carroll Ave, 2G, Chicago, IL, 60612
Reception: 3 April 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 3 April 2011—24 April 2011

Curated by Susanne Doremus.

April 2, 2011
128 N Campbell Ave, G, Chicago, IL 60612
Reception: 2 April 2011, 7:00pm—11:00pm
On View: 2 April 2011—21 April 2011

In her most recent body of work, Caroline Carlsmith uses laborious drawing processes to explore themes of athleticism, toil, humor and mortality. Through repetitive drawings of subjects ranging from anchovies to mixed martial artists, Carlsmith lures [...]

April 30, 2011
1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Auction/Party: 30 April 2011, TBA—TBA
Cost: TBA

Details TBA.

April 30, 2011
1254 N Noble St, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 30 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

Work by Myranda Gillies and Elspeth Vance.

April 29, 2011
400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 29 April 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 26 April 2011—30 April 2011

Claire Arctander gets into exquisitely rough things.

Tim Nickodemus paints fragmented images from the body which lie between the visual and the tactile.

JD Pirtle works equally as an artist, programmer, and creative technologist to focus on visualizations and [...]

April 29, 2011
Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60701
Fair: 29 April 2011
On View: 29 April 2011—2 May 2011
Cost: $20 daily ($25 multi-day pass, $15 seniors/students)

Art Chicago 2011, the annual international fair of contemporary and modern art, brings together the world’s leading emerging and established galleries. Art Chicago offers curators, collectors, artists and art enthusiasts a comprehensive [...]

April 29, 2011
Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60701
Fair: 29 April 2011
On View: 29 April 2011—2 May 2011
Cost: $20 daily ($25 multi-day pass, $15 seniors/students)

More than an art fair, NEXT is a showcase for the world’s talents and an adventure in innovative culture. An opportunity to redefine the relationship between art and its public, NEXT is a [...]

April 23, 2011
3636 S Iron St, Chicago, IL 60609
Fair: 23 April 2011
On View: 23 April 2011—24 April 2011

threewalls, Roots and Culture and Public Media Institute announce The MDW Fair, a gathering of independent art initiatives, spaces, galleries and artist groups from the Chicago metropolitan area. The MDW Fair will demonstrate the diversity, strength and vision of the [...]

April 22, 2011
119 N Peoria St, 2D, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 22 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 22 April 2011—29 May 2011

Work by Megan Plunkett.

April 22, 2011
400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 22 April 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 19 April 2011—23 April 2011

Christopher Meerdo‘s work is located in the space between the absence and revealing of memory, its authenticity confirmed or denied through the use of photography, sculpture, and moving images.

Rebecca Beachy explores human processing, material intimacy [...]

April 19, 2011
119 N Peoria St, 2C, Chicago, IL 60607
Talk: 19 April 2011, 7:00pm
What do US Flag Code, Flag Day, lapel pins, and Betsy Ross have to do with nation building? Katie will lead a conversation on the history of the American flag, its current use, and the desecration of the flag related to flag code. [...]

Various Locations @ 3219 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608
Festival: 22 April 2011
On View: 22 April 2011—1 May 2011

These years of recession, insolvency, uncertainty, and calamity have affected us in ways we couldn’tve imagined before. The debt crisis, atomized and divisive political culture, a lethargic economy that sees almost one of out [...]

April 16, 2011
1254 N Noble St, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 16 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

Details TBA.

April 16, 2011
2135 N Rockwell St, Chicago, IL 60647
Reception: 16 April 2011, 6:00pm—11:00pm
On View: 16 April 2011—22 May 2011

Work by Emre Kocagil.

April 15, 2011
Max Palevsky Theater, Ida Noyes Hall @ 1212 E 59th St, Chicago, IL 60637
Screening: 15 April 2011, 7:00pm

The Open Practice Committee and The Renaissance Society are very pleased to welcome back Pierre Huyghe to the University of Chicago to be a 2011 artist-in-residence. In 2000 Huyghe presented his installation, Third Memory, one of his [...]

April 15, 2011
845 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 15 April 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 15 April 2011—TBA

Work by Tamar Halpern, Jacob Kassay, Carter Mull, Valerie Snobeck, Josh Tonsfeldt and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung.

April 15, 2011
400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 15 April 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 12 April 2011—16 April 2011

Jesus Duran creates while meditating on the effects technology has on social constructs, behaviours, physical actions and the sense of self.

Raquel Ladensack creates photographs and 16mm films that explore absence, shifting perspectives, and temporal frequencies.

Paul Nelson makes a [...]

April 14, 2011
162 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601
Performance: 14 April 2011, 6:00pm
Cost: $10 ($5 film center members, $7 students, $4 SAIC/AIC students/staff)

Since 2001, New York-based artists Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder have collaborated on a series of performances and installations that transform the mundane mechanics of film projection into sublime experiences of light [...]

April 12, 2011
Columbus Auditorium @ 280 S Columbus Dr, Chicago, IL 60603
Artist Talk: 12 April 2011, 6:00pm

The work of Kenyan-born, New York-based artist Wangechi Mutu is a visceral response to her critiques of gender, culture, and mass media imagery. Exploring the female body as a site of engagement and provocation, Mutu’s work is frequently populated [...]

April 9, 2011
119 N Peoria St, 2C, Chicago, IL 60607
Talk: 9 April 2011, 7:00pm

Erika Nelson is a visionary artist, educator and one of America’s foremost experts and speakers on the World’s Largest Things. She is a national researcher and speaker on Grassroots Art environments, Roadside Attractions and Architecture, and the World’s Largest Things. Nelson [...]

April 9, 2011
216 N Harvey Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302
Reception: 9 April 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 9 April 2011—14 May 2011

An ongoing installation performance that Brooklyn-based Sheila Pepe calls “practicing for the end of ephemera.” Previously performed at CAHM in Houston, TX; at Testsite/Fluent-Colab in Austin, TX; Artisterium 3, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; and at [...]

April 9, 2011
2130 W 21st St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 9 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 9 April 2011—23 April 2011

An installation of images and objects by Rachel Ettling and Paul Erschen.

Recipes for Mold and Sun is a patchwork documentary of the Driftless Area of rural southwestern Wisconsin. Sparked by the artists’ exploration of an abandoned homestead [...]

April 8, 2011
1369 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 8 April 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 8 April 2011—7 May 2011

Work by Ian Pedigo.

April 8, 2011
1550 N Milwaukee Ave #2, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 8 April 2011, 7:00pm—11:00pm

Details TBA.

Curated by Easton Miller.

April 8, 2011
673 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 8 April 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 8 April 2011—7 May 2011

Work by Adam Pendleton.

April 8, 2011
4200 W Diversey Ave, Chicago, IL 60641
Reception: 8 April 2011, 6:00pm—12:00am
On View: 8 April 2011—9 April 2011

Dock 6 Collective is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition in the Design and Art Series. Dock 6 has teamed up with artist Edra Soto to curate this series, as well as inviting some of the leading designers [...]

April 8, 2011
119 N Peoria St, 2A, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 8 April 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 8 April 2011—14 May 2011

Work by Michelle Blade.

José Lerma in Gallery 2.

April 8, 2011
400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 8 April 2011, 5:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 9 April 2011—5 April 2011

Aay Preston-Myint reconfigures and disrupts familiar objects and sites to depict a critically queer space: a proposition about bodies and relationships in our present and future, in which new iterations of violence and hierarchy compete with [...]

April 8, 2011
40 Arts Circle Dr, Evanston, IL 60208
Exhibition: 8 April 2011
On View: 8 April 2011—14 August 2011

The Chicago-based collaborative artists’ group Temporary Services has gained national and international attention for its experimental methods and strategies for making and displaying art. Through social actions, do-it-yourself projects, publications, and public interventions, the artists Brett Bloom, [...]

April 8, 2011
40 Arts Circle Dr, Evanston, IL 60208
Exhibition: 8 April 2011
On View: 8 April 2011—14 August 2011

A major figure in contemporary art, Kiki Smith is best known for her sculpture, prints and drawings exploring corporeal (both human and animal) realms and, more recently, the world of fairy tales.

I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and [...]

April 7, 2011
Lecture Center Room A-1 @ 821 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607
Rally: 7 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm

Teach 4 Amerika is a five-week, 11-city, coast-to-coast road trip that crosses state lines and institutional boundaries to inspire and enable local art students to define the future of their own educational experience. Traveling the byways of [...]

April 7, 2011
162 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601
Performance: 7 April 2011, 6:00pm
Cost: $10 ($5 film center members, $7 students, $4 SAIC/AIC students/staff)

As Botborg, Berlin/Brisbane-based artists and musicians Scott Sinclair and Joe Musgrove fuse and rewire raw electronic signals to create intensely visceral experiences of sound-color synaesthesia. Using a complex array of custom electronics, [...]

April 6, 2011
600 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
Screening: 6 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm

Video Playlist: Heartaches and Holy Rites features artists who explore the things that break our hearts and the spiritual practices we turn to or invent to cope with the pain. Whether or not we can take the healing process into our own [...]

April 6, 2011
Price Auditorium @ 111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Talk: 6 April 2011, 6:00pm—7:30pm
Cost: $20 ($15 members)

Leading up to the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich, Germany, a number of German and American artists proposed site-specific art projects for the Olympic buildings and grounds designed by architect Günther Behnisch in collaboration with [...]

April 6, 2011
1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Panel: 6 April 2011, TBA—TBA

What is art school for? Given its exorbitant cost and the unlikelihood of art market success for most students, what should art education be? And what institutions are best suited for the task?

TEACH 4 AMERIKA: THE CONVERSATION asks local art students, creative [...]

April 3, 2011
3144 W Carroll Ave, 2G, Chicago, IL, 60612
Reception: 3 April 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 3 April 2011—24 April 2011

Curated by Susanne Doremus.

April 2, 2011
2007 N Point St, Chicago, IL 60647
Reception/Release Party: 2 April 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 2 April 2011—24 April 2011

“You’re another man named Richard, also not my darling, you are Richard simply… My darling, did I tell you these are babies that hold the signs. The babies hold the signs.” “I have no problem in [...]

April 2, 2011
1452 N Milwaukee Ave, 3, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 2 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 2 April 2011—30 April 2011

Work by Andy Cahill, Alan & Michael Fleming, Yasi Ghanbari, Danny Greene, Joe Grimm, Marissa Perel, Aaron David Ross and Michael Vallera.

“I wish to believe that Bruce Nauman’s work is more about shitting in your pants than [...]

April 2, 2011
1254 N Noble St, Chicago, IL 60642
Reception: 2 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

Work by Dayton Castleman.

April 2, 2011
350 N Ogden Ave, 4E, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 2 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 2 April 2011—16 May 2011

Work by Paul Cowan.

April 2, 2011
2153 W 21st St, Chicago, IL, 60608
Reception: 2 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 2 April 2011—23 April 2011

Look what the cat dragged in. Truth AND consequence. If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.

Laura Davis is playing domestic, but the comforts of home have turned on themselves. Embellishment generates tension and devastates traditional [...]

April 2, 2011
2154 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 2 April 2011, 4:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 2 April 2011—14 May 2011

For his 1st exhibition in Chicago, Belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde will exhibit 12 new, mostly large-scale drawings combined with hand-written text to create a complete environment both in the gallery and “on the wall”—our ongoing [...]

April 2, 2011
220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Artist Talk: 2 April 2011, 3:00pm
Cost: $10 general admission ($8 MCA members, $6 students)

Renowned for photographs, videos and text-works that challenge narrow, conventional views of gender, identity, culture, history, and memory, Lorna Simpson discusses her process and her most recent work, placing it in context within the [...]

April 1, 2011
1822 S Desplaines St, Chicago, IL 60616
Reception: 1 April 2011, 7:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 1 April 2011—15 April 2011

Photography and sculpture installation from artist Claudia Berns. This work was born in the hills of Steuben, WI—where Claudia photographed women in green pastures and cold rushing springs. Berns is interested in the way women connect [...]

April 1, 2011
1545 W Division St, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 1 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm

6/6/6 is a traveling exhibition that created itself through connectivity. With the proliferation of social networking and technology-based communication, making real connections becomes more important than ever. Each artist in this exhibition has selected one other artist who lives [...]

April 1, 2011
27 N Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607
Reception: 1 April 2011, 6:00pm—8:00pm
On View: 1 April 2011—21 May 2011

The title of Hoffmann’s exhibition is taken from the book by influential French modernist architect and designer, Le Corbusier; When the Cathedrals Were White. Perhaps most notable among Le Corbusier’s influences found in Hoffmann’s work is the [...]

April 1, 2011
1765 S Laflin St, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 1 April 2011, 6:00pm—10:00pm
On View: 1 April 2011—30 April 2011

Work by Duk Ju L. Kim.

April 1, 2011
5228 S Harper Ave, Chicago, IL 60615
Reception: 1 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 1 April 2011—23 April 2011

Work by Nicole Mauser.

April 1, 2011
1344 W 18th Pl, Chicago, IL 60608
Reception: 1 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm

Featuring work from New Media artists Lenox-Lenox, Geoffrey Pugen and Tabor Robak.

April 1, 2011
833 N Orleans St, Chicago, IL 60610
Reception: 1 April 2011, 5:00pm—7:00pm
On View: 1 April 2011—14 May 2011

Emerging and established artists—from Chicago, New York, and abroad—defend, rebuke, distort, and lovingly misrepresent their own claims to space and place in the Untitled Gallery at Marwen. Territories explores the artists’ perspectives on cultural and emotional terrain [...]

April 1, 2011
220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Exhibition: 1 April 2011
On View: 1 April 2011—1 May 2011

Alex Lehnerer is a Chicago based architect and urban designer. In 2009, he established the Department of Urban Speculation (DeptUS) in Chicago. This quasi institution was set up to create a link between Lehnerer’s work as practicing architect and [...]

April 1, 2011
118 N Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Exhibition: 1 April 2011
On View: 1 April 2011—7 May 2011

Work by Huma Bhabha.

April 1, 2011
1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Reception: 1 April 2011, 6:00pm—9:00pm
On View: 1 April 2011—29 April 2011

Katy Keefe‘s work focuses on the translation of lived experience through the rehashing of visual influence. For this exhibition, process is used to explore the lineage of her choices. Keefe’s work follows a cyclical model in [...]