Have you ever felt like a thing was made especially for you at just the right time? This was my overwhelming impression as soon as I walked into the Art Institute’s Ray Johnson show. I didn’t know much about Johnson prior to a deep dive I took, prompted by this exhibition’s sprawling collection of his […]
Tag: Art Institute of Chicago
Posted inArts & Culture
Thinking of us
Barbara Kruger, collagist, conceptual artist, and Futura Bold Oblique font savant, will turn 77 two days after her exhibition “THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU.” closes at the Art Institute of Chicago on January 24. The expansive exhibition, which opened in September after being delayed almost a year by COVID-19 concerns, is […]
Posted inMusic
Thirty years ago, a Black queer zine captured the scene that birthed house
Robert Ford and Trent Adkins shaped the bold, subversive, gossipy, funny, deeply engaged voice of Thing, which was felled by the AIDS pandemic in 1993.
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago museums and galleries prepare to optimistically reopen
The leaders of the city’s cultural institutions remain encouraged after facing the most recent round of closings in November.
Posted inArts & Culture
Plague time at the Art Institute
What it’s like to explore a familiar place under unfamiliar circumstances.
Posted inArts & Culture
Site-specific performances moved us beyond the black box
Now on pause in the pandemic, what comes next for Chicago’s vibrant scene?
Posted inArts & Culture
Social Distance Gallery highlights student artists
How canceled BFA and MFA shows are persisting during the COVID crisis.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Nothing next to normal
As the curtain falls on live performance, museums and performing arts groups scramble to adapt online.
Posted inArts & Culture
Vaginal Davis steps into the mainstream spotlight
Nearly five decades after her career began, the pioneer performance artist, musician, and activist is now a permanent fixture at the Art Institute.
Posted inArts & Culture
The mix master
Nigerian-born, London-based fashion designer Duro Olowu curates one of the MCA’s largest shows ever filled with local treasures.
Posted inMusic
Charles Curtis revisits the first acoustic piece by composer Éliane Radigue at the Art Institute of Chicago
Though her work is often characterized as minimalist, composer Éliane Radigue is a category unto herself. During the 1950s and ’60s, the Paris resident worked as an assistant to the originators of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. But the music she composed after leaving their orbit employed long tones obtained from microphone feedback, […]
Posted inMusic
John Cale honors his late producer and mentor by helping close the Art Institute’s Warhol exhibit
Avant-rock elder statesman John Cale hasn’t played in Chicago in years, so this show is a hell of an occasion. One of two surviving members of the original Velvet Underground, the Welsh-born musician has had a career spanning more than five decades, and while he’s slowed down his recorded output since reaching his late 70s, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Alexandra Bachzetsis takes stock of exchange in Chasing a Ghost
The choreographer’s duets about changing partners takes over the Art Institute’s Trading Room.