Ready for My Close-up
Mug Shots: The Face of Crime, a collection of booking photos from the late 1800s through the 1960s opens March 14th at Mars Gallery
Contributors: Ann Wiens
Canvassing Chicago
“To the east were the moving waters as far as eye could follow,” Nelson Algren wrote in 1951. Fifty years later, the abstract painter William Conger reinterpreted that famous first line from Chicago: City on the Make in his painting To the East Were Moving Waters. For Conger, who has lived most of his 71 years in Chicago, the relationship of the city to the lake is a central theme. “There’s the marvelous clutter of the city with its wild aspirations and energy, and the lake with its order and timelessness,” Conger says. “People go to the lake to see what forever is like, while the city is right now.” In advance of two shows opening in January—a retrospective at the Cultural Center and new works at Roy Boyd—we asked Conger to reminisce on a few of his most Chicago-centric paintings.
The Five
Chicago Artists Month is coming to a neighborhood near you.
Found Art
Rashid Johnson continues his theme of Afro-futurism in a site-specific multi-media exhibition.
Found Art
Columbia College MFA student takes journey from Saigon to the west.
The Five
In addition to the MCA’s blockbuster Jeff Koons show, five other don’t-miss exhibitions making plenty of noise
The Five
A rundown on the fairs that make up Artropolis
Found Art
Uncovering Chicago’s best-kept secrets
Don’t Miss: Art from the Heart
New Zealand/Australian artist/scholar Ruth Watson makes art using salt, images of her own tongue, and other unconventional media. Hear her discuss her work.
Art Imitates Death
Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, discusses art, writing, and her upcoming exhibition on Isabella Blow, the fashion icon who died last spring.