Beverly Arts Center
2407 W. 111th St.; 773-445-3838, beverlyartcenter.org
The multidiscipline, multicultural center offers fine-arts education, programming and entertainment including art, music, dance and theater, as well as exhibitions of contemporary art in four galleries by established and emerging artists.
Through April 1: “As They Like It: Chicago Artists Visualize Shakespeare”: More than 35 artists use various mediums to interpret the Bard’s plays, sonnets and characters. Artists in the group exhibition include Tim Arroyo, Keith Brownlee, Mario Castillo, Laura Coyle, Michael Ferris, Jan Spivey Gilchrist and Chris Flynn.
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive
and Outsider Art
756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088, art.org
The nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting self-taught and outsider art holds international exhibitions; a permanent collection with more than 1,100 works; and the Henry Darger Room Collection. Through June 30: “HEAVEN+HELL”: In the two-part exhibit, with “Hell” on display at Intuit and “Heaven” on display at Loyola University Museum of Art (820 N. Michigan Ave.), artists present their perceptions of heaven and hell — a subject often explored in folk, outsider and self-taught art — through illustrations, word-laden drawings, sculpture, figurative images and more.
Loyola University Museum of Art
820 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-915-7600, luc.edu/luma
Loyola’s art museum is dedicated to exhibitions that focus on spirituality in art.
Through June 30: “HEAVEN+HELL”: A two-part exhibit, with “Heaven” on display at Loyola, and “Hell” on display at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.), artists present their perceptions of heaven and hell — a subject often explored in folk, outsider and self-taught art — through illustrations, word-laden drawings, sculpture, figurative images and more.
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
Northwestern University, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; 847-491-4000, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
The North Shore fine-arts museum focuses on visual arts programming from exhibitions and lectures to symposiums and workshops with artists and scholars, and also through screenings of classic and contemporary films at Block Cinema. An expanding permanent collection consists primarily of works on paper.
Through April 8: “Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe”: An exhibition of rare prints, drawings, books, maps and scientific instruments explores the contributions northern Renaissance artists made to scientific discoveries. An international conference of gallery talks, symposiums and more runs in conjunction with the exhibition.
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago Ave.; 312-280-2660, mcachicago.org
One of the nation’s largest modern art museums offers thought-provoking art created since 1945. The MCA’s permanent collection includes work by Franz Kline, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. The museum highlights surrealism of the 1940s and ’50s, minimalism of the 1960s, conceptual art and photography from the ’60s to the present, recent installation art, and art by Chicago-based artists. Besides art in all media and genres, the MCA has a gift store, bookstore, restaurant and 300-seat theater and a garden with views of Lake Michigan.
Through April 17: “Ill Form and Void Full (2010–11)”: The “Chicago Works: Laura Letinsky” exhibit is a new series of photographs by Letinsky, known for her elegant still-lifes that engage sentiments of desire, fulfillment and loss, as well as the fleeting nature of time.
National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W. 19th St.; 312-738-1503, nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org
Located in Chicago’s Pilsen/Little Village community, the museum exhibits traditional and contemporary Mexican art prints and drawings, papier-mache, ceramics, photographs and avant-garde installations from local and international artists. NMMA also brings children in by the busload to see art demonstrations and hear storytellers. Each year around Halloween, it hosts the city’s most-visited Day of the Dead exhibit.
Through Aug. 19: “El Alma de la Fiesta”: The exhibition of folk and fine art celebrates the well-known Mexican fiestas from Spanish and African cultures including Day of the Dead, Holy Week, Carnival, May Day and Cinco de Mayo.
National Veterans Art Museum
1801 S. Indiana Ave., third floor; 312-320-9767, nvam.org
Formerly the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, This is the world’s only museum with a permanent collection focusing on the subject of war from an artistic perspective. With a mission of inspiring greater understanding of the real impact of war, the museum collects, preserves and exhibits art inspired by combat and created by veterans of all U.S. military conflicts.
Smart Museum of Art,
University of Chicago
5550 S. Greenwood Ave.; 773-702-0200, smartmuseum.uchicago.edu
The museum is home to special exhibitions and a collection that spans 5,000 years of artistic creation. Working in close collaboration with scholars from the University of Chicago, the Smart Museum has established itself as a leading academic art museum and an engine of adventurous thinking about the visual arts and their place in society.
Through Dec. 16: “Chris Vorhees and SIMPARCH: Uppers and Downers”: The next installation of the Threshold series is an abstract landscape that fills the reception hall of the museum. A kitchen cabinetry, countertop and sink formation is reworked into a large-scale rainbow arching over a waterfall, playing on the utopian promise that restraint yields bliss.
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