Cecil McDonald, Jr.: In the Company of Black

January 19 - April 14, 2019

Over the course of seven years, artist and educator Cecil McDonald, Jr. photographed people he describes as “extraordinarily ordinary.” As the artist explains, “When it comes to Black people, America is fascinated with extreme poles: either showing victims of violence, pain, and poverty (Black misery) or famous athletes and entertainers, and icons of popular culture (Black exceptionalism).

Forgotten Forms

February 2 - April 7, 2019

Forgotten Forms is a collaborative exhibition between members of the Chicago Cultural Alliance, the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.

Furtive

February 2 - April 7, 2019

Curated by Filter Photo, Furtive is a photography-based exhibition that explores the complexity of memory, both personal and collective.

In Good Company

February 2 - April 7, 2019

In Good Company is a group exhibition presented by Arts of Life. This exhibition seeks to highlight the mutually beneficial relationships and connections that develop within the Arts of Life studios.

Everyone’s a Designer/Everyone’s Design

December 8, 2018 - April 1, 2019

Presented as part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art exploring Chicago’s art and design legacy, "Everyone’s a Designer/Everyone’s Design" is a free traveling museum exhibition that explores and celebrates everyday Chicagoans’ influence on art and design in the city.

African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce and the Politics of Race

October 27, 2018 - March 3, 2019

Featuring work from a wide range of practices including cartooning, sign painting, architectural signage, illustration, graphic design, exhibit design and product design, this exhibition is the first to demonstrate how African American designers remade the image of the black consumer and the work of the black artist in this major hub of American advertising/consumer culture.

Keep Moving: Designing Chicago's Bicycle Culture

October 27, 2018 - March 3, 2019

Keep Moving explores how bicycle design in Chicago contributed to the early popularity of bicycles in America, their survival through the 20th century, and their resurgence today.

Tuned Mass: Jeff Carter, Faheem Majeed & Susan Giles

September 8, 2018 - January 6, 2019

Jeff Carter works from images of specific conflict zones sourced online and developed a series of sculptures that explore the “architecture of the barricade”. His interpretations rely on forms that express aggressive dynamics and raw utility, yet are carefully integrated and intentionally crafted.

Year of Creative Youth Exhibitions

August 25, 2018–January 6, 2019

As part of the Year of Creative Youth, the Chicago Cultural Center worked in collaboration with four local community organizations to feature the work of young artists.

OVERRIDE: A Billboard Project

September 17–October 7, 2018

This significant citywide public art initiative featured the work of 12 artists represented by major local, national and international galleries exhibiting at the exposition displayed throughout Chicago’s City Digital Network (CDN) of citywide billboards.

Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle

June 2–October 1, 2018

This multi-faceted project explores the past, present and future of North America’s Great Lakes – one of the world’s most emblematic and ecologically significant ecosytems.

Keith Haring: The Chicago Mural

March 3–September 23, 2018

Having rocketed to worldwide fame in the 1980s, graffiti artist Keith Haring worked with 500 Chicago Public School students to paint a monumental mural in Chicago's Grant Park in 1989. This exhibition included a large selection of the mural reflecting the artist's incisive draftsmanship and unsettling cast of symbolic characters (atomic baby, barking dog).

Scott Stack: Interior and Exterior

February 10–August 5, 2018

This exhibition presents 12 recently completed, large-scale paintings that challenge our perceptual capabilities as well as defy conventional categories and operations of abstract and representational traditions in modern painting.

Cleveland Dean: Recto/Verso – Duality of a Fragile Ego

February 3–July 29, 2018

The abstract and conceptual works by Cleveland Dean are presented through a wide range of prosaic materials executed in mixed-media on panels and sculptures. The charred and highly reflective surfaces, grids, wood, cement and resin create tension-filled objects that invite the viewer to reflect into their own psyche and remind them that they are greater than they may believe.

Xavier Toubes: Descriptions Without a Place. PushMoon4

February 3–July 29, 2018

The exhibition of sculptural ceramics presents work with sensuous possibilities. The deft handling of material and skillful glaze technique is created by the palms but executed at the back of the mind. The “fluttering inventions” mingle experience with emotions, touching on the real, aware of the historical moment but un-consumed by it.

de-skinned: duk ju l kim recent work

February 3–July 29, 2018

Chicago-based artist Duk Ju L. Kim was born in Busan, South Korea and spent her formative years in Tehran, Iran. The historical, geopolitical, and current events that shaped her early life and her perception of the world are present in her paintings.

Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush

February 10–May 6, 2018

Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush is the first solo exhibition in a museum for the Chicago-born artist. The exhibition is a 10-year survey of approximately 30 of the artist’s paintings, watercolors and collages.

Chicago Public Schools All-City High School Exhibition

March 22–April 12, 2018

As part of the Year of Creative Youth, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will present the annual Chicago Public Schools All-City High School Visual Art Exhibition. This juried art exhibition highlights the diverse talent and work of Chicago Public School students in the professional platform of a gallery setting.

Chicago Architecture Biennial: Make New History

September 16, 2017–January 7, 2018

The second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in North America, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields.

Chicago Architecture Biennial - Chicago’s River Edge Ideas Lab

September 16, 2017–January 7, 2018

How can we develop Chicago’s riverfront as a cohesive, connected and active public space? Nine international architecture firms respond with innovative visions for improving Chicago’s river edge.

Chicago Architecture Biennial - Gerard & Kelly: Modern Living

September 16, 2017–January 7, 2018

Candida Alvarez: Here

April 29–August 6, 2017

Triptych Unloose

May 20–July 30, 2017

The Wall of Respect: Vestiges, Shards and the Legacy of Black Power

February 25–July 30, 2017

Guest curated by Romi Crawford, Abdul Alkalimat and Rebecca Zorach, this exhibition chronicles how the the Organization of Black American Culture's Visual Artists Workshop designed and produced a seminal mural for and within Chicago’s Black South Side communities.

The Pride & Perils of Chicago’s Public Art

January 14–July 30, 2017

Planning and creating public art can be a risky enterprise. For over 200 years, Chicago has been putting art in public places. Sometimes it’s loved. Sometimes it’s hated. To further complicate matters, times change – and so do people and tastes.

Eugene Eda’s Doors for Malcolm X College

January 21–June 25, 2017

Artists in Residence and Curatorial Fellows

Through May 17, 2017

The Chicago Cultural Center Artists in Residence and Curatorial Fellows were selected by a panel of esteemed jurors following a competitive review of nearly 200 qualified applicants.

Nicole Marroquin and Andres L. Hernandez: Historical F(r)ictions

February 18–May 7, 2017

50x50 Invitational / The Subject is Chicago: People, Places, Possibilities

February 11–April 9, 2017

Parsons & Charlesworth: Spectacular Vernacular

September 10, 2016–January 22, 2017

Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis

September 17, 2016–January 8, 2017

Tom Denlinger: Ekstatic Edgewater

September 17, 2016–January 8, 2017

Laura Davis: Jewelry for My Mother(s) and Other Microaggressions

September 10, 2016–January 8, 2017

Maria Pinto: 25 Years

September 10, 2016–January 8, 2017

Krista Franklin: Quest for The Marvelous

September 3, 2016–January 8, 2017

Artists in Residence - Diaz Lewis: 34,000 Pillows

Through October 2016

Diaz Lewis are currently working on 34,000 Pillows, a project in response to the statutory “Bed Mandate” for Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).Moon.

Paul Catanese: Visible From Space

July 9–September 27, 2016

For his premier solo exhibition in Chicago, artist Paul Catanese creates an interdisciplinary artwork that ponders the creation of Earthly drawings as seen from the Moon.

OVERRIDE: A Billboard Project

August 29–September 25, 2016

In this unprecedented citywide public art initiative, EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Modern & Contemporary Art, in partnership with DCASE, is featuring the work of 15 artists from major local, national and international galleries on 28 digital billboards located throughout Chicago’s City Digital Network.

For The Common Good: Cards Against Humanity

January 20–September 4, 2016

A year-long series of three exhibitions and related programming, in collaboration with the Chicago Design Museum, “For the Common Good” looks at Chicago-based independent designers, design firms and entrepreneurs that approach their design work and business to deliver cutting-edge product while addressing a variety of social issues through a myriad of platforms and strategies.

Phyllis Bramson: Under the Pleasure Dome

June 4–August 28, 2016

Phyllis Bramson is an enigmatic and influential artist and professor in the Chicago art world. Her lush colors, coy figuration and wholehearted embrace of the decorative in the service of masterfully composed assemblages and paintings that draw the viewer ever further in to many layered stories are continuous threads in her decades long practice of artmaking and teaching.

Kartemquin Films: 50 Years of Democracy Through Documentary

May 21–August 20, 2016

For the first time in it’s history, Kartemquin has sorted through over 30,000 elements to curate an exhibition spanning the evolution of the film collective and of documentary filmmaking itself, including the creation of classic films such as Inquiring Nuns(1968), Hoop Dreams (1994) and The New Americans (2003).

Dan Gamble: Clockwork

May 14–August 21, 2016

Dan Gamble’s meticulously crafted paintings and drawings feature imagery and vast spaces that reconcile or hold in suspension both science and art, the sublime and the particular, theory and closely observed reality.

Dorothy Hughes: On Form

May 14–August 21, 2016

From a career spanning five decades of agilely investigating forms with tactile media, the mostly recent works by Dorothy Hughes are all inspired by the natural environment.

Regin Igloria: How Different It Is to Be Outside

May 7–August 21, 2016

Regin Igloria's multi-disciplinary work includes performance, sculpture, photography, drawing and artist's books. He combines many of these modes to explore the social and consumerist implications of outdoor and endurance sport and leisure.

Carlos Rolón/Dzine: I Tell You This Sincerely…

April 9–July 31, 2016

Internationally recognized for his elaborately crafted paintings, ornate sculptures and site-specific installations that incorporate social practice, Carlos Rolón/Dzine returned home for his first Chicago solo exhibition in 12 years.

Pablo Helguera: Librería Donceles

January 30–May 29, 2016

Conceived by New York-based artist and educator Pablo Helguera, Librería Donceles is a traveling Spanish-language bookstore.

Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen

February 6–May 1, 2016

In the first major American exhibition tour, Theo Jansen’s wholly distinctive kinetic creations blur the lines of art, engineering, science and performance. The exhibition celebrates the thrill of the Strandbeests’ locomotion and shows the processes that have driven their evolutionary development.

Present Standard

January 30–April 24, 2016

Guest curated by Edra Soto and Josue Pellot, Present Standard features 25 contemporary artists with Latino Chicago connections. Their works that play with the manifold meanings and forms suggested by the “standard” – as either a flag or a pennant, a measuring tactic or a guiding principle, or a potent symbol of national identity.

Chicago Architecture Biennial

October 3, 2015–January 3, 2016

The Chicago Architecture Biennial utilized all of the Chicago Cultural Center’s galleries and public spaces for free exhibitions and newly commissioned installations—the first time that the entire building has been dedicated to one curatorial project.

Charlie Trotter: Chef, Artist, Thinker

Through September 27, 2015

Charlie Trotter: Chef, Artist, Thinker looks at the interests and inspirations which manifested publicly in the chef’s thoughtful and artistic handling of cuisine.

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist

March 7–August 31, 2015

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist celebrated twentieth-century American artist Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (1891-1981) and revealed his continued impact on art history. While considered a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, Motley never lived in New York but rather played that role from Chicago – his home for most of his life.

Cheryl Pope: Artist in Residence

Through August 2015

The artist engaged visitors, especially youth, in her artistic practice using the boxing ring as a performance space for working out conflict in a non-violent way.

Move Your Body: The Evolution of House Music

Through August 16, 2015

The exhibition Move Your Body: The Evolution of House Music celebrates more than 30 years of a homegrown art form that is now heard around the world.

Adebukola Bodunrin, Cecil McDonald, Jr. and Mahwish Chishty: Artists in Residence

Through August 9, 2015

Film, video and installation artist Adebukola Bodunrin, photographer Cecil McDonald, Jr. and Painter Mahwish Chishty represent the inaugural group of DCASE Artists in Residence working in a private studio at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Love for Sale: The Graphic Art of Valmor Products

April 25–August 2, 2015

Everybody wants love. And who doesn’t want to have good luck and success in life? Or to look their best? Quietly operating from Chicago’s South Side between the 1920s and 1980s, the Valmor Products Company offered all these things and more. Perfumes, hair pomades, incense, and a wide variety of other products came packaged in small bottles and tins with eye-catching labels affirming the mystical powers of the products within.

Chicago’s Gospel Truths

April 15–June 1, 2015

Gospel music has ages-old history and traditions. But once gospel met Chicago, it was never the same again.

Faheem Majeed and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford: Artists in Residence

Through May 15, 2015

The Garland Gallery studio became a laboratory, test site and play space for a large-scale multifaceted project titled “Floating Museum” that engaged a wide variety of community partners.

All-City High School Exhibitions by Chicago Public Schools Students

March 20–April 12 & April 17–May 10, 2015

Two juried exhibitions of student artwork. The first features painting, drawing, printmaking, paper arts, ceramics and glass; the second features photography, design objects, film, animation, digital media, sculpture, fashion and textiles.

Alison Ruttan: if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

January 24–May 10, 2015

In this installation, the artist flanks her earlier photographic and video project, based on Jane Goodall’s disturbing study of Chimpanzee behavior.

Ian Weaver: Black Knights' Archive, Chapter One: Migration

January 24–April 26, 2015

The Black Knights’ Archive is a fictive construction of the history of the Near West Side Chicago neighborhood known as “Black Bottom.”

Richard Hunt: Sixty Years of Sculpture

December 6, 2014–March 29, 2015

Richard Hunt: Sixty Years of Sculpture celebrates the career of the respected and prolific Chicago sculptor on the eve of his 80th birthday. The exhibition features 60 objects dating from 1954 to 2014, drawn mostly from the artist’s own collection.

For the Common Good: Meet The Remediators

November 8, 2014–April 5, 2015

Nancy Klehm and Emmanuel Pratt

Nancy Klehm and Emmanuel Pratt are leaders in the genre of contemporary art called Social Practice, with significant involvement in environmental concerns.

All the Names: Patricia Rieger

September 13, 2014–January 4, 2015

With a twist towards the absurd and theatrical, Patricia isolates characters and spaces to suggest drama while encouraging ambiguity.

DIE WELT (The World): Drury Brennan

September 13, 2014–January 4, 2015

Drury Brennan's works seeks to recombine music, art and poetry in new ways, seeking to elicit visceral responses from the viewer.

Topography of Tension: Frank Connet

September 13, 2014–January 4, 2015

This recent body of textile and sculptures continues Connet’s twenty year fascination with the process of the dye-resist technique of mokume shibori. Connet's new wall pieces approach a level cartographic exploration, reassembling the compositions into abrupt transitions between pattern and deep indigo fields.

Sabina Ott: here and there pink melon joy

August 30, 2014–January 4, 2015

Sabina Ott created a site-specific installation of new works that creates a transformative psychic journey, turning three enormously windowed spaces overlooking Millennium Park into a mysterious and mystical hybrid environment.

Jason Reblando: New Deal Utopias

April 26–November 2, 2014

During the Great Depression, the U.S. government built three planned communities of Greenbelt, Maryland; Greenhills, Ohio; and Greendale, Wisconsin.

Artist in Residence - Monika Neuland

September 6–October 30, 2014

Artist in Residence, Monika Neuland transformed the Garland Gallery into a vibrant public studio. For her project, entitled Social Fiber, the artist created a gathering space filled with a variety of looms and hand-made textiles reminiscent of cultures around the world throughout time.

Chicago International Film Festival 50th Anniversary Exhibition

September 6–October 30, 2014

This exhibition includes posters, photos, memorabilia and continuous video loops of moments from winning films.

CHGO DSGN: Recent Object and Graphic Design

May 31–November 2, 2014

CHGO DSGN [Chicago Design] is a major exhibition of recent object and graphic design by 100+ of the city’s leading designers.

Hebru Brantley: Parade Day Rain

June 14–September 23, 2014

Hebru Brantley explores the human experience of emotion through the story of Parade Day Rain.

Chicago’s Front Porch: Blues Fest Through the Years

May 10–September 7, 2014

A photography exhibit celebrating blues musicians and the 31st Annual Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park.

100 100s on the One and a Half: Shane Huffman

April 26–August 24, 2014

Shane Huffman is swimming to the Moon. If ignorance of the laws of nature is the basis of superstition, there's an element of deliberate superstition in Huffman's willful revision of cosmic order.

Adelheid Mers: Enter the Matrix

April 26–August 24, 2014

From studio critique, a mode of conversation about art works, Mers has evolved a generative, productive method of talking about other issues as well, by diagramming them onto her Fractal 3-Line Matrix.

AGAIN GONE ~ Miller & Shellabarger

April 26–August 24, 2014

Miller & Shellabarger use gunpowder and black oil sunflower seeds to outline their bodies and hands. Both materials hold immense amounts of energy, even when distilled into diminutive containers, and are utilized for their rich metaphorical connotation. One is used to feed the flame. The other is left as feed.

Matthew Girson: The Painter’s Other Library

May 24–August 10, 2014

The Painter’s Other Library is a meditation on silence. The quiet of the library is evoked in the paintings as well as the history of the building and the galleries that house the exhibit.

CHAIN REACTION: Chicago Biking on the Move

May 16–July 13, 2014

Pedal into the past, present and future of cycling with this bike-inspired exhibit.

Mecca Flat Blues

February 15–May 25, 2014

It’s been more than 60 years since the Mecca Flats building stood at 34th and State Street, yet it remains a prominent story in both architectural and sociological discussions.

35 Years of Public Art

February 22–May 4, 2014

This exhibition included a selection of artwork from various satellite locations including libraries, police stations and other public buildings.

Jan Tichy: aroundcenter

February 1–April 27, 2014

aroundcenter is a site-specific exhibition composed of nine installations, each of which stands on its own, yet at the same time relate, deriving from and leading to the others.

Julie Murphy: Escape into Absurdity

January 25–April 20, 2014

A lifelong doodler, Chicago-based artist Julie Murphy uses her vast work experience as inspiration for her drawings.

Wright Before the "Lloyd"

Closed on April 11, 2014

This exhibit explores seldom discussed early projects that demonstrate how Frank Loyd Wright’s path to becoming a modern architect had deep and far-reaching roots. 

Regina Mamou

October 11, 2013–January 19, 2014

Chicago based visual artist Regina Mamou combines photography with research practices.

Paint Paste Sticker: Chicago Street Art

October 19, 2013–January 12, 2014

This exhibit features work from over two dozen artists including Slang, Zore, Ish Muhammad, Hebru Brantley, Uneek, Statik, Brooks Golden, Chris Silva, You Are Beautiful, Oscar Arriola and an overview of projects by Chicago Urban Art Society & Pawn Works and Galerie F.

Ken Ellis: Gathering

September 14, 2013–January 5, 2014

Ken Ellis’s quilted images embrace an impressive swath of cultural history – from African-American and Native-American experience to nursery rhymes, the history of crime, and the Chicago punk rock scene. 

Matthew Groves: Universal Statuary

September 14, 2013–January 5, 2014

Universal Statuary is a new body of ceramic sculptures from Chicago based artist Matthew Groves. 

Mike Andrews: Not Your Grandma’s Future Juice Bar

September 14, 2013–January 5, 2014

Fueled by dynamic relationships between bright and dull colors, hard and soft materials, and range of scale, this series of sculptures and tapestries pointedly occupies the gallery space demanding the viewer’s attention.

SHIFT - A New Media exhibit by Luftwerk

September 14, 2013–January 5, 2014

For more than 10 years, Chicago-based collaborative Luftwerk has been examining the relationship between light, form, and material through the development of large-scale, site-specific installations using projected video. Their latest new media installation “Shift” incorporates three distinct, yet interconnected works to immerse viewers in a heightened experience of sight, color, and sound.

Shutter to Think: The Rock & Roll Lens of Paul Natkin

September 20, 2013–January 4, 2014

Paul Natkin is widely considered to be one of Chicago’s greatest music photographers. Starting in the mid 1970s, Natkin traveled the world capturing signature moments of drama, excitement, outrageousness, and excess that propelled rock’s tumultuous history.

Nailed: Handwork

June 22–September 29, 2013

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is pleased to present Nailed: Handwork is a solo exhibition of large scale photographs made by Chicago artist and educator Helen Maurene Cooper at the City Gallery’s Historic Water Tower

City Works: Provocations for Chicago's Urban Future

May 24–September 29, 2013

This exhibition is a collaborative effort by five teams – David Brown, Alexander Eisenschmidt, Studio Gang, Stanley Tigerman, and UrbanLab – determined to find potentials for spatial, material, programmatic, and organizational invention within the city.

Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show

July 13–September 23, 2013

Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister not only tests the boundaries between art and design, he often transgresses it through his imaginative implementation of typography.

Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good

May 25–September 1, 2013

Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good features 84 urban interventions initiated by architects, designers, planners, artists and everyday citizens that bring positive change to neighborhoods and cities.

Modernism’s Messengers: The Art of Alfonso and Margaret Iannelli

May 18–August 17, 2013

In this show, one discovers not only the love they both had for modernism, but also the love that they had for each other.

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College

March 23–June 16, 2013

"Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College" features six monumentally-scaled murals painted in 1939-42 by African American artist Hale Woodruff. Never before seen outside of Alabama's Talladega College, the murals depict the 1839 mutiny by slaves on the Spanish ship La Amistad and its aftermath.

Animal Kingdom

March 9–June 3, 2013

Animals are the most continuous and ancient subject in art. Since creating bisons and horses in the cave at Lascaux artists have continued through today to craft meaning with animal images.

Shawn Decker: Prairie

February 8–May 5, 2013

Shawn Decker is a composer, artist, and teacher who creates sound and electronic media installations and writes music for live performance, film, and video.

Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina: Indigo

January 26–April 27, 2013

Employing fair trade embroidery artisans from women’s collectives in India and executing their works in indigo blue, Indian artist Shelly Jyoti and US artist Laura Kina’s new works draw upon India’s history, narratives of immigration and transnational economic interchanges.

Claire Ashley

January 11–March 31, 2013

Oak Park artist Claire Ashley, whose unconventional work strains the boundaries between not only painting and sculpture, but between static and mobile. 

Industry of the Ordinary: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

August 17, 2012–February 17, 2013

While their work takes many forms, it is largely performative and seeking to engage the viewer as an inclusive display. The show includes a sampling from over 80 of the Industry of the Ordinary (IOTO) projects displayed with objects, photos and video documentation.