The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is pleased to open several exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center and in Millennium Park beginning January 31 and continuing through the spring.  Admission to the Chicago Cultural Center and Millennium Park is free. For complete details, visit chicagoculturalcenter.org and millenniumpark.org.

Chicago Cultural Center – 78 E. Washington St.

All exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, are presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). Gallery and building hours are Monday–Friday, 10am–7pm, and Saturday–Sunday, 10am–5pm; closed holidays. Admission is FREE. For information, visit chicagoculturalcenter.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ChiCulturCenter.

Luis A. Sahagun: Both Eagle and Serpent

February 1–April 26

Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1^st Floor East

Known for his intricate and fantastical paintings and sculptures built from silicone, lumber, drywall, concrete and hardware, Luis Sahagun creates symbols that represent working-class immigrants in the United States. In Both Eagle and Serpent, this solo exhibition artfully confronts the degrading rhetoric aimed at immigrants, migrants and the other, as an act of cultural reclamation to spotlight Latinx narratives of resilience and self-determination.

Curated by Teresa Silva.

• Saturday, February 1, 2–4pm

Opening Event with Artist Luis A. Sahagun and Curator Teresa Silva

• Saturday, February 29, 1–3pm

Totemic Doll Making Workshop Led by Artist Luis A. Sahagun in the Chicago Cultural Center's Learning Lab, 1st Floor West and Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1^st Floor East

In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration

February 15–May 10, 2020

Exhibit Hall, 4^th Floor North

First presented by 6018 North in spring 2019, under the title 'Living Architecture,’ In Flux is a large-scale, multidisciplinary exhibition that highlights the influence and impact of immigrant artists on Chicago. The exhibition responds to the current political climate to highlight how Chicago was built with immigrant labor, particularly in the arts, and is continuously shaped today by exemplary immigrant artists. With over 20 contemporary artists, In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration illustrates a living and evolving legacy between past and present work by Chicago immigrants in art and design.

Curated by Tricia Van Eck, Director of 6018 North

• Friday, February 14, 5–8pm

Opening Event with artists and exhibition curator. Kioko Aoki will perform on Taiko drums in the gallery at 6pm and 7pm. William Estrada will be in the gallery with his Mobile Street Art Cart

• Saturday, February 29, 11am–Noon

Curator Tour with Tricia Van Eck, Director of 6018 North

NKAME: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón (1967-1999)

February 29–May 24

Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4^th Floor North

This landmark retrospective is the first in the U.S. dedicated to the work of Belkis Ayón, the late Cuban visual artist and printmaker who mined the founding myth of the Afro-Cuban fraternal society of Abukuá to create an independent and powerful visual iconography. The exhibition’s 47 prints encompass a wide range of the artist’s graphic production including her signature collography technique, a printing process combining materials of various textures and absorbencies.

Curated by Cristina Vives and organized by the Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana, Cuba, with the Chicago Cultural Center. Exhibition tour management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California.

• Friday, February 28, 5–8pm

          Opening Event

• February 29, Noon–1pm
  Curator Tour with Cristina Vives and Artist Jacqueline Maggi

Exhibitions in Millennium Park – 201 E. Randolph St.

Millennium Park is located on Michigan Ave., bordered by Randolph St. to the north, Columbus Dr. to the east and Monroe St. to the south. Access to the park is free and open to the public daily, 6am–11pm. For information, visit millenniumpark.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @Millennium_Park.

Luftwerk, Requiem: A White Wanderer

Sound Installation: January 31 – February 2, 2020, 11am–6pm

Sound Walks: Friday, January 31, 12:15pm; Saturday, February 1, 4pm (family oriented) and 8pm; Sunday, February 2, Noon

Concert: Saturday, February 1, 5pm (family oriented) and 7pm, registration at http://bit.ly/whitewanderer

Millennium Park, Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Requiem: A White Wanderer is an ongoing project by Luftwerk inspired by Larsen-C, a 120-mile long crack that ran along the Antarctic ice shelf and broke into a trillion-ton iceberg named A 68 in 2017. White Wanderer translates seismic data from this ailing iceberg into an emotional experience, connecting the public to the urgency of climate change. Over the course of 2019 as part of their Outer Ear Residency at Experimental Sound Studio, Luftwerk has been working in collaboration with Katherine Young to create a musical composition for orchestra and voice based on these sonic signals. This composition will premiere in two concerts presented alongside a sound installation in the lattice of Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Presented by the Millennium Park Foundation

Edra Soto: Screenhouse

Through Fall 2021

Millennium Park, Boeing Gallery North

Constructed from approximately 400 charcoal-hued, 12-inch cast concrete blocks, the 10-foot high pavilion-like structure comes out of Soto’s ongoing series exploring symbolic transplants of iron grills and decorative concrete screen blocks found throughout the Caribbean and the American South. These decorative screens, known as rejas and quiebrasoles, are ubiquitous in Soto’s birthplace in Puerto Rico. In Screenhouse, Soto transforms the quiebrasol form from a planar screen that divides public from private into a nearly fully enclosed, free-standing structure that functions as both a sculptural object and a social gathering place.

Presented by the Millennium Park Foundation

Christine Tarkowski: “When we call the Earth by way of distinction a planet and the Moon a satellite, we should consider whether we do not, in a certain sense, mistake the matter. Perhaps- and not unlikely - the Moon is the planet and the Earth the satellite! Are we not a larger moon to the Moon, than she is to us?”

Through Fall 2021

Millennium Park, Boeing Gallery South

Christine Tarkowski’s work is as extravagantly conjured as its title, taken from the 18^th-century British astronomer William Herschel. The startling presence of candy-colored hand blown glass boulders suspended above and about earthbound boulders evokes a strange, yet elemental landscape–ironically similar to our environment, both natural and built. The installation, set down in the midst of the highly manicured garden of Millennium Park, seems a gentle critique of how cities build, manipulate, and re-present natural forms.

Presented by the Millennium Park Foundation

Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the development of Chicago’s non-profit arts sector, independent working artists and for-profit arts businesses; providing a framework to guide the City’s future cultural and economic growth, via the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan; marketing the City’s cultural assets to a worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free and affordable cultural programs for residents and visitors.

Millennium Park Foundation

The Millennium Park Foundation, a private, philanthropic nonprofit partner, was created in 1998 to support the City of Chicago’s efforts in the design, construction, and curation of Millennium Park. It is the steward of Millennium Park’s internationally-recognized icons and public features. These include the prestigious Jay Pritzker Pavilion and dramatic BP Pedestrian Bridge, world-renowned Cloud Gate and Lurie Garden, iconic Crown Fountain, and exquisite Boeing Galleries for public art exhibitions. Through its ongoing development initiatives, the Millennium Park Foundation is dedicated to keeping Millennium Park a free, accessible and equitable venue for all Chicagoans today, and for generations to come.

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