Art
Chicago’s Plan for Sick Trees: Turn Them into Art
Artists turn trees devastated by a pest into works of public art, calling attention to the problem and creating opportunities for unexpected artistic encounters across the city.
Chicago
In Brief
Anish Kapoor's Bean Will Be Windexed, Baked (by Guy Fieri), Turned into a Ghost, and More
A new meme has people creating Facebook events to render peculiar tributes to Chicago's iconic "Cloud Gate" sculpture.
Art
Getting Comfortable with Sexy and Silly Art
SEX, an exhibition at Chicago's Lawrence & Clark gallery, challenged me to reckon with the cultural inheritance of my Taiwanese American upbringing.
Art
The Many Arms of Takashi Murakami’s Career
A retrospective at the MCA Chicago charts the many strands of Murakami's painting practice, from his early Nihonga style to recent Buddhist iconography.
Art
Sculpture of Abe Lincoln Confusingly Includes Generic White Man Sporting "a Dad Look"
Seward Johnson's latest sculpture in downtown Chicago features a giant Abe Lincoln next to a "common man," or a white guy in a cable-knit sweater and corduroy pants.
News
Chicago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Its Picasso Sculpture, a Gift Many Residents Didn’t Want
When it was unveiled, people protested the Chicago Picasso and called it a "colossal booboo." Now it's become a beloved icon.
Art
The Subversive Works of China's First Video Artist
Zhang Peili, who's having his first American retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago, rejects the government's use of media for entertainment and propaganda.
Art
With Internet Comments and Colonial Imagery, an Artist Remixes Our Hybrid Identities
Larry Achiampong mixes pop culture, internet imagery, and historical iconography related to the African diaspora to craft images, videos, and installations that reflect the complexity of identity in today's fluid, interconnected world.
Art
A Latino Punk Band Looks Back on 25 Years of Music, Art, and Activist Resistence
CHICAGO — Los Crudos, a much-lauded punk band from Chicago, has always been about community, so when lead singer Martin Sorrondeguy realized that 2016 marked the band’s 25-year anniversary, he knew the occasion called for more than a traditional music show.
Art
How Kerry James Marshall Rewrites Art History
CHICAGO — When he studied art history in the 1970s in Los Angeles, Kerry James Marshall was struck by the absence of black artists in the "canon."
Art
Whimsical, Art Deco–Inspired Window Designs
CHICAGO — Confessions of an arts writer: my background is in theater design.
Art
Returning “Topless Cellist” Charlotte Moorman to Her Rightful Place in the Avant-Garde
EVANSTON, Ill. — A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s, currently on view at the Northwestern University’s Block Museum, is a masterful (if only slightly overwhelming) orchestration of original artworks and archival materials that examines the legacy of avant-g