Photo: Courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery
 

A Lauren Wilkins photo, Couple (2013), on display as part of The Chicago Project V at Catherine Edelman Gallery starting July 12.

A+D GALLERY
Through 7/27 Sex. Money. Race. Gender: The Ladydrawers (of Chicago, Ill.) Rabble-rouser Anne Elizabeth Moore curates this exhibition featuring work from the Ladydrawers, a local collective of graphic artists. Comprising all genders, the group fires criticism, couched as cartoons, at the media, public figures, and even the comics industry itself. Its goal: take down economic, sexual, and racial injustices. 619 S Wabash. colum.edu/ADGallery.

BERT GREEN FINE ART
7/13–8/24 Morgan Sims: New Paintings and Neon Works. Morgan Sims makes large, colorful, abstract paintings. He also makes sculptures using only neon lights, such as Campfire, a pile of neon sticks emitting a garish warmth. 8 S Michigan. bgfa.us.

CATHERINE EDELMAN GALLERY Critic’s Pick
7/12–8/31 The Chicago Project V. What does contemporary photography in Chicago look like? Every two years the Catherine Edelman Gallery spotlights a handful of emerging local photographers from its curated online database. It is open submission, but only the best artists get selected. 300 W Superior. edelmangallery.com.

CHICAGO PRINTMAKERS COLLABORATIVE
Through 8/31 Soundcheck: A Project by Printmaker-Musicians. These multi-tasking artists make prints and perform and record music. A CD accompanies the works on view and is for sale. 4642 N Western. chicagoprintmakers.com.

CORBETT VS. DEMPSEY
Through 7/20 Personal Universe. Robert Donley used to make minimalist shape-and-color paintings but ditched them for drawings that each contain hundreds of tiny, detailed figures. Part toy-scape, part teenage-boy doodle, they’re peculiar, colorful, and imaginative. Also in the project space, new work by the promising young sculptor Matt Nichols. 1120 N Ashland. corbettvsdempsey.com.

LINDA WARREN PROJECTS
Through 8/10 Conrad Freiburg jerry-rigs the gallery’s front door to kick a bucket when opened, setting off a chain of events among the gallery’s sculptures. Also in the project space, Eric Esper presents new paintings of tragic historical Chicago events: fires, train derailments, boat disasters—in his luscious style. 327 N Aberdeen. lindawarrengallery.com.

PACKER SCHOPF
Through 7/6 Kathy Halper embroiders textiles using images culled from her daughter’s Facebook page.
7/12–8/17 Vesna Jovanovic’s background in chemistry heavily influence her collection of vivid watercolors, which are aptly called Tender Anatomy. The gallery also showcases the septuagenarian artist Hank Feeley, whose pop paintings are provocative as postmodern Zen riddles. 942 W Lake. packergallery.com.

PRINTWORKS
Through 8/17 Local author Audrey Niffenegger is also a graphic novelist and an accomplished printmaker. On display: prints from Raven Girl, her graphic novella about a half-woman/half-raven and the plight of self-transformation. 311 W Superior. printworkschicago.com.

RHONA HOFFMAN
Through 8/9 In the 1970s, the massively influential Gordon Matta-Clark helped run a restaurant called Food, noted for unusual ingredients and as a hangout for the avant-garde. This exhibit includes artworks from his time at 112 Greene Street in New York. 118 N Peoria. rhoffmangallery.com.

SAE INSTITUTE
Through 8/31 Luis Sahagun, a promising young artist, draws compelling portraits on reshaped cardboard boxes, a material he also uses in sculptural compositions so physically immediate they seem to emote. 820 N Orleans. sae-usa.com.

STEPHEN DAITER
Through 8/3 Abelardo Morell: From the Ground Up. Morell photographs landscapes—like desert vistas and Manhattan asphalt—and uses prisms to reflect the image of a landscape onto the ground, creating a merged, highly textured artwork. 230 W Superior. stephendaitergallery.com.

THOMAS ROBERTELLO Critic’s Pick
Through 8/3 Samantha Bittman’s geometric hand-woven textiles recall abstract modernist paintings in their balance of austerity and playfulness. Her work will pair excellently with that of the Wisconsin-based textile artist Gabriel Pionkowski. 27 N Morgan. thomasrobertello.com.

TERRAIN
7/28–8/25 Contemporary artists have rethought the shape, structure, and sound of wind chimes, which are displayed on the front porch of a local art professor’s Oak Park home. The works are accessible day or night; just walk by. 704 N Highland, Oak Park. terrainexhibitions.tumblr.com.

THREEWALLS
Through 8/3 Binary Lore: Edie Fake and Brenna Murphy. Rising artists Edie Fake (from Chicago) and Brenna Murphy (from Portland, Oregon) each create fiercely patterned drawings and sculptures, recalling the dreamy ’80s. 119 N Peoria. three-walls.org.

WOMAN MADE GALLERY
7/12–8/22 Slippery Slope. Pornography as art? Maybe. Purge the hardcore penetration shots and you’re left with something that resembles contemporary art: fabricated sets, awkward dialogue, jazzy title sequences, and nude portraiture. The local author and artist Robin Hustle curates the group show. 685 N Milwaukee. womanmade.org.

 

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