Art
The Pitfalls of Art as Therapy
CHICAGO — Invented in 2011, Zachary Cahill’s USSA 2012 began as a one-off joke, a half-sketched theoretical future where America was reshaped as a socialist nation.
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Art
Chicago Imagists: Art History’s Overlooked Chapter, Now on Film
The Hairy Who is not the backing band of the Austrian pop singer Conchita Wurst. Still, it’s hard to believe the members of the Hairy Who, one of several coteries of artists who came together in the 1960s–1970s under the broader moniker of the Chicago Imagists, would not have celebrated this transge
Art
Transcending the Surface of Warhol and Marisol
CHICAGO — The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Warhol and Marisol focuses on the conversational nature of artworks produced by artists Andy Warhol and Marisol Escobar, who got to know each other in the 1960s.
Art
Take Your Picture with an Oversize Neosurrealist Dream Head
CHICAGO — Amanda Ross-Ho's giant gray mannequin head is a neosurrealist’s dream come true. Resting comfortably in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, it looks as if caught in preparation for use in a Man Ray photogram. Ross-Ho's site-specific installation THE CHARACTER AND SHAPE OF ILLU
Art
From Ruin to Re-creation: Theaster Gates Returns to Chicago
CHICAGO — Theaster Gates’s installation 13th Ballad at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) continues his investigation of art objects and social activism, which started in 2009 with the redevelopment of derelict houses in a South Chicago neighborhood, and which he took to a national stage a
Art
Tavi Gevinson’s Exquisite Cadaver
CHICAGO — Tavi Gevinson took the ACT exam the same day she took the stage at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s Edlis Neeson Theater, joining old family friend and LA-based filmmaker Jonah Ansell to discuss their latest collaboration, "Cadaver." In this animated short film, Ansell and Gevinson
Art
Mothers of Invention … or Something
CHICAGO — The latest piece by Martin Creed has literally landed on the city. It consists of giant neon letters forming the word Mothers, mounted on a steel beam and spinning on a steel post that’s fixed into the ground in front of the museum.
Art
Neither Under Construction Nor Complete
CHICAGO — We’re now a quarter of the way through Scottish artist Martin Creed’s year-long “residency” at the MCA Chicago. I put “residency” in quotation marks because Creed is only going to be here sporadically throughout 2012. So far, the MCA has put one new work by Creed on display each month, non
Interview
Poetically Mundane Scottish Minimalist Lands in Chicago
CHICAGO — Martin Creed is a Scottish artist who won the British Turner Prize in 2001, but he is less well known in the United States. That might change in 2012, when Creed will be the artist in residence at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) for the whole year.
Art
Art That Thinks Inside the Box
What is it about boxes that is so fascinating? I was thinking this as I went into Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art to see Pandora’s Box, a show that displays artist Joseph Cornell’s signature assemblages alongside the works of artists who allegedly were inspired by him or who were in artistic sy