It’s not a contest, really, although either area would gleefully accept being the winner.
It’s just that the River North gallery district now faces competition for the hearts, minds and wallets of art lovers in the form of an increasingly cohesive West Loop Gate community. Rather than antagonistic, it’s more accurate to paint their relationship as a kind of healthy rivalry between siblings–one urbane, one brash and both vying for attention.
Perception is reality in the art-selling business, and gallery visitors can tell a lot about a district’s personality by checking out exhibition openings on Friday nights (and today is one of the bigger opening nights of the month). Then you can find out if you are more River North or more West Loop.
If River North is older and more widely known, West Loop has the role of the cocky upstart down cold. The two aren’t the only game in town–there are gallery groupings around North Michigan Avenue, Pilsen and Wicker Park/Bucktown–but they offer viewers the city’s greatest concentrations of contemporary artworks, not to mention some pretty satisfying people watching.
Gallery districts, like any other kind of neighborhood, play out their own dramas within the larger urban landscape. They wax and wane, at first following close on the heels of artists’ spaces and usually serving as the harbingers of gentrification. With the West Loop having really exploded in the last year, Chicago viewers have a choice between two quite different areas.
“It’s a challenge to keep up with two major gallery districts, not to mention other outlying areas. This is a big plus for Chicago’s contemporary art scene, that it is showing support for such gallery expansion,” said Gregory Knight, director of the visual arts program at Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
“River North is more established, but that’s not to put down the stability of West Loop. River North is a little more staid. It’s transitioning in a way the way that SoHo [in New York] has, while West Loop has become the new Chelsea.”
River North has morphed into a chic, well-groomed area. Longtime art galleries rub shoulders with antiques shops, restaurants, furniture stores, spas and designer boutiques. West Loop’s galleries, meanwhile, have opened on either side of Randolph Street’s meatpacking and wholesale produce district, which maintains a more industrial atmosphere, even as luxury lofts pepper the area.
In contrast to its early days as a rough alternative to the community around Ontario and Michigan surrounding the old Museum of Contemporary Art location, River North has become cozy and compact. The area is bounded mostly on the north and south by Chicago Avenue and Huron Street, and to the east and west by Wells and Orleans Streets. According to Natalie van Straaten, executive director of the Chicago Art Dealers Association, the district is home to 65 galleries–a number that has remained constant since the late 1980s.
West Loop, meanwhile, covers a larger geographic area. Its 22 galleries reach primarily from Fulton Street on the north to Washington Street on the south, and from Halsted Street on the east to May Street on the west. That doesn’t include Klein Art Works, Paul Klein’s outpost on North Morgan Street on the other side of the train tracks, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Gallery 400 a few blocks south on Peoria Street, or the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gallery 2 down on Jackson Boulevard.
Most of the action, though, takes place around Peoria and Washington Streets, where 12 galleries have settled. In contrast to antiques shops, West Loop includes such offbeat tenants as Bridge Magazine, a literary and arts journal that holds readings and art exhibitions in its offices at 119 N. Peoria.
The West Loop galleries have positioned themselves as edgy, challenging provocateurs. That translates to more conceptually-oriented installations, video art and photo-based works, fewer figurative sculptures and landscape paintings. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find installations in River North (most likely at TBA Exhibition Space) or framed paintings of people in West Loop (Peter Miller).
“In the past everyone in Chicago has been afraid to take chances,” said Kavi Gupta, who runs Vedanta Gallery and has been a tireless advocate for the West Loop since the mid-1990s. “But I see everyone around me taking chances now. We’re in tune with what’s happening in the international art world. The area lends itself to work being riskier, not as safe.”
“You know, everyone wants to think of us as so conservative,” countered Roy Boyd, who has operated his River North gallery, now at 739 N. Wells, for 23 years. “But Anne Wilson is one of our artists and she was in the Whitney Biennial this year,” he added, referring to a Chicago artist who has gained attention for her provocative hair sculptures and installations.
The differences between the two districts become more obvious at the openings, which galleries offer every four to five weeks. Spaces in both areas try to schedule their openings on the same date, although this is more dependable at the season opening in September, the post-holiday resumption in January, and during Art Chicago in May.
River North openings usually take place earlier in the evening, making them attractive for the 9-to-5 crowd. Because of River North’s proximity to the Magnificent Mile, the galleries draw tourists as well as residents and collectors, which can create a nice international ambience. The crowds tend to be people in their 30s and older, although one can also find young art students combing the area–spiky pink hair, tattoos and pierced noses treading through a sea of black and dark tweed.
The West Loop openings start later and last longer. The crowds are younger, undeniably funky and well sprinkled with collectors, and the events can have the delicious cooler-than-thou feel of an after-hours party. “The West Loop is the most public secret around,” said Aron Packer, who moved his gallery to West Loop after years in Wicker Park and River North. “It definitely has the younger thing going on, though it’s not like we do raves.”
Whereas people casually stroll from opening to opening down the streets of River North, West Loop denizens are apt to group inside buildings, which generally house larger, rawer spaces than are found in River North. (Think high-ceilinged, cement-floored kunsthalles.)
No matter where they’re standing, or in what district, people usually sip some sort of beverage out of a plastic cup. This brings us to an important topic: the drinks. Viewers will find plenty of the “gallery white wine” on hand–and even some red–in both neighborhoods. Despite gallery wine’s bad rap, some might be pleasantly surprised. “When you tell people it’s bad, they adjust their expectations,” explained Myra Casis of Zg Gallery. “They say, `Oh, that’s not so bad!'” West Loop galleries, alternative to the end, may also lean toward the exotic (mango martinis) or timeless (Old Style).
Whatever one’s taste in drinks or art, Chicago now has places that will accommodate. Most in the Chicago art community believe that when it comes to galleries, more is more.
“There have always been people saying, `This is where the scene is right now,'” van Straaten said. “West Loop is the first area that has been a growing, dynamic scene since River North was created. But it hasn’t eroded River North–it has just augmented it.”
Let the viewing begin.
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A quick gallery guide
River North
High end: Zolla-Lieberman, 325 W. Huron St., 312-944-1990. Paintings by David Kroll, opening tonight 5-8 p.m., through Jan. 4.
Most entertaining: Zg Gallery, 300 W. Superior St., 312-654-9900. Group exhibition and paintings by Trine Bumiller, opening tonight 5-8 p.m., through Jan. 4.
Wild card: Carrie Secrist, 300 W. Superior St., 312-280-4500. Group exhibition celebrating gallery’s 10th anniversary, opening tonight, 5-8 p.m., through Jan. 3.
River North
D.O.B.: 1979
Rallying force: Zolla-Lieberman Gallery
Number of inhabitants: 65
Nexus: Superior and Franklin Streets
What they wear: Jil Sander
Reigning coffee: Starbucks
What they read: Artforum
Drink: Chardonnay
Peanut butter: Smooth
Color: Black
West Loop
High end: Rhona Hoffman, 118 N. Peoria St., 312-455-1990. Paintings by Peter Wegner, through Dec. 7.
Most entertaining: Bodybuilder & Sportsman, 119
N. Peoria St., 312-492-7261. Drawing, photography, installation and sculpture by Rosemarie Fiore, through Saturday.
Wild card: Aron Packer, 118 N. Peoria St., 312-226-8984. Drawings by Lora Fosberg, animal portraits by Ann Worthing opening tonight 6-9 p.m., through Dec. 28.
West Loop
D.O.B.: 1995
Rallying force: Vedanta Gallery
Number of inhabitants: 21
Nexus: Peoria and Washington Streets
What they wear: Diesel
Reigning coffee: Intelligentsia
What they read: Frieze
Drink: Old Style
Peanut butter: Chunky
Color: Black
