Chicago's unique culture and history, as seen through the eyes of its residents, is on view in a striking new photography exhibit opening at the Art Institute of Chicago on May 12. In his 1951 book "Chicago: City on the Make," Nelson Algren offered bittersweet praise for the city: “Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies.
Art Galleries & Museums
Chun Kwang Young’s solo show, Aggregation, opened May 3rd at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York. Chun’s otherworldly assemblages incorporate both sculpture and painting. His freestanding sculptures and low-relief wall hangings are crafted of triangular cones of antique mulberry paper, or hanji, tinted with tea or pigment.
This month at Carpenters Workshop Gallery is an exhibit of decadent works from Italian designer Vincenzo De Cotiis. As the name suggests, “Baroquisme” is the designers reimagining of the Baroque aesthetic for the 21st century. Known for its ornate designs in rare and fine materials, Baroque may seem at odds with much of the sleek, modern design of the recent past. Handmade by skilled artisans, this collection of seating, lighting, tables, and cabinets offers the textures and luxury of Baroque, with clean modern lines.
Now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Essma Imady’s installation, Thicker than Water, is a heart-rending contemplation of the effects of Syria’s civil war and the realities of life as a refugee, including leaving friends and family behind and the strangeness of navigating a new home. Syrian-born Imady moved to the US to get her MFA just before war broke out. Her work explores the tensions and anxieties of refugees and immigrant parents.
Currently on view at the Seattle Art Museum, three garments from Jono Vaughan’s ongoing series "Project 42" combine beautifully crafted, often elaborate clothing with performance art in a passionate, bittersweet memorial for murdered transgender individuals. Created to raise awareness of the violence faced by transgender people, the artist plans to create 42 of these memorials, referencing the shorter average lifespans of transgender people.
Rhona Hoffman Gallery opens its new location at 1711 West Chicago Avenue with Judy Ledgerwood’s fifth solo gallery exhibition "Far From the Tree." Featuring bright colors and repetitive patterns inspired by quilting and other decorative arts, Ledgerwood subverts the viewer’s expectations of abstract painting with unexpected color combinations and tactile globs of paint that bleed from one section into another.
“Then They Came for Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II” at the International Center of Photography in New York City is a documentary exposé on a seldom-acknowledged history of American paranoia and racism: it examines the wartime internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.
Opening this week at Pace Gallery, is the gallery’s first New York showing of the artist Yto Barrada. “How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself” is no simple gallery show, either. Spanning three floors of Pace’s 32 East 57 Street location, Barrada’s diverse practice and body of work is fully represented in this survey. Featuring collages, a diverse range of sculptures, dyed and sewn fabric compositions, prints, and films, the exhibition is far-reaching.
“Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil” is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art and is the first exhibition of the artist’s work in the U.S. Viewers are immediately introduced to Tarsila (1886–1973) via her cubist education. Indeed, it is important that Tarsila’s career be seen with the understanding that she benefited from extensive European modernist training and mentorship.
Opening this month at the de Young in San Francisco is “Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art.” This comprehensive survey of America’s first homegrown art movement showcases art of the machine age. Known for its clean lines and smooth surfaces, these works celebrated the industrial age and presented a distinctly American point of view. Including decorative arts in addition to painting and photography, "Cult of the Machine" gives an in-depth and scholarly view of this movement that has not seen a major exhibition in 20 years.
